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George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 

COLONEL  FLOWERS 


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REMINISCENCES 

WRITTEN  FOR  MY  CHILDREN  BY  REQUEST 
OF  THEIR  MOTHER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2012  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://archive.org/details/reminiscenceswriOOhall 


KEMINISCENCES 

WRITTEN  FOR  MY  CHILDREN  BY  REQUEST 
OF  THEIR  MOTHER 


Deae  Childken,  —  Your  mother  has  asked  me  to 
give  some  account  of  the  closing  scenes  at  Ball's 
Bluff,  Virginia,  and  at  some  other  battles  of  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion. 

I  was  the  last  commissioned  officer  to  get  away 
in  safety  from  the  Bluff  on  the  night  of  October 
21,  1861.  My  company,  H,  was  drawn  in  from 
the  woods  on  the  right  of  the  field  of  action  in 
time  to  participate  in  the  final  rally  mentioned  in 
Captain  William  F.  Bartlett's  letter  to  his  mother, 
as  published  in  his  memoir  by  Francis  W.  Palfrey. 
Immediately  after  the  failure  of  that  rally  I  heard 
Colonel  William  R.  Lee  say :  "  I  have  done  all  I 
can  do.  You  are  at  liberty  now  to  care  for  your- 
selves." I  marched  my  company  in  tolerably  good 
order  to  the  base  of  the  Bluff.  There  was  much 
confusion  but  no  panic  prevailing  then  at  that 
place.  Captain  Bartlett  at  once  raised  his  sword 
and  called  out :  u  Those  who  desire  to  surrender 
will  follow  me,"  —  under  the  circumstances  a  per- 
fectly rational  thing  for  Captain  Bartlett  to  do. 


4  REMINISCENCES 

Some  eighty  men  and  officers  followed  him.  How 
they  marched  up  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and 
escaped  by  means  of  a  skiff,  discovered  to  them  by 
a  negro,  is  well  known.  Their  escape  was  an 
amazing  bit  of  luck  due  to  the  kindness  of  the 
negro.  I  told  the  men  of  my  company  to  follow 
Captain  Bartlett,  or  to  remain  with  me,  as  they 
might  prefer.  Those  who  remained  were  kept  to- 
gether pretty  well  until  darkness  covered  the  river 
and  made  a  swimmer  fairly  safe  from  the  enemy's 
bullets.  I  then  encouraged  every  man  who  could 
swim  to  make  an  effort  to  reach  Harrison's  Island, 
which  lies  midway  between  the  Virginia  and  Mary- 
land shores.  A  goodly  number  did  so  with  suc- 
cess. In  the  meanwhile,  a  brave  man,  one  of  the 
unknown  heroes  of  the  war,  Captain  Timothy 
O'Meara,  of  the  Tammany  Regiment,  with  excel- 
lent judgment,  true  courage,  and  rare  steadiness 
of  nerve,  called  for  volunteers,  and  soon  had  a  well- 
established  line  of  pickets  halfway  up  the  Bluff. 
An  occasional  shot  was  fired  in  the  darkness  at 
real  or  imagined  enemies.  That  picket  line  and 
those  shots  furnish  the  true  explanation  of  the 
hesitancy  of  the  rebels  and  the  long  delay  before 
they  closed  in  upon  the  remnant  of  our  command. 
It  may  have  been  eight  o'clock  p.  m.  when  I  stripped 
and  swam,  sword  in  hand  and  watch  suspended 
from  my  neck,  to  Harrison's  Island.  Cold,  but  not 
greatly  exhausted,  I  walked  to  an  improvised  hos- 
pital, where  Surgeon  Nathan  Hayward  gave  me  a 
shirt  and  pair  of  drawers.     I  then  returned  to  the 


EEMINISCENCES  5 

river,  where  I  found  some  men  constructing  a  raft 
of  fence  rails,  which  they  lashed  together  with 
strips  of  rubber  blankets  and  bits  of  clothing.  A 
soldier  was  overheard  to  say  he  thought  he  knew 
the  whereabouts  of  a  rowboat  on  the  Maryland 
side  of  the  island.  He  and  others  were  urged  to 
get  that  boat.  They  did  so.  It  made  several  trips 
to  the  Virginia  shore,  returning  with  wounded 
men,  one  of  whom  was  Corporal  Charles  Cowgill, 
of  my  company.  From  Corporal  Cowgill  I  have 
learned  that  the  boat  would  be  met  by  Captain 
O'Meara  when  it  got  across  to  the  Virginia  shore. 
He  personally  saw  the  boat  properly  filled  with  the 
wounded.  Through  it  all  Captain  O'Meara  calmly 
stood  as  though  he  had  a  whole  division  around 
him.  He  and  his  little  picket  guard  made  it  possi- 
ble to  rescue  certainly  thirty  or  forty  men  before 
the  rebels  swooped  down  upon  the  picket  line  and 
around  the  remnant  of  the  Union  band.  The  brave 
Irish  captain  was  captured  and  taken  to  Libby 
Prison.  Since  then  I  have  heard  not  a  word  about 
him. 

To  return  to  the  raft.  When  that  crazy  struc- 
ture was  completed,  a  soldier  whose  face  probably 
I  have  never  seen  by  daylight  and  whose  name  I 
have  never  learned,  volunteered  to  help  me  pole  it 
across,  or  perhaps  it  was  I  who  volunteered  to  help 
him  —  I  don't  remember.  The  current  carried  us 
a  distance  much  below  the  Bluff.  As  we  neared 
the  Virginia  shore  we  heard  through  the  darkness 
the  sounds,  "Hist,  hist! "     They  came  from  Union 


6  REMINISCENCES 

soldiers  there  in  hiding.  "We  took  three  aboard 
and  started  to  recross  the  river.  When  somewhat 
more  than  halfway  over,  the  raft  went  to  pieces. 
We  all  had  to  swim  for  it,  the  second  time  for  me. 
My  comrade  and  one  other  besides  myself  reached 
the  island.  The  remaining  two  disappeared  in  the 
darkness,  swept  down  and  under,  no  doubt,  by  the 
strong  and  rapid  current.  The  net  result,  then, 
of  our  venture  was  one  man  rescued  and  two 
drowned. 

It  may  have  been  ten  o'clock  p.  m.  when  again 
I  reached  the  hospital.  There  I  found  my  captain, 
John  C.  Putnam,  whose  good  right  arm  had  been 
amputated  at  the  shoulder.  The  arm  was  buried 
decently  on  the  island  with  one  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  George  H.  Ward's  legs.  As  dawn  was 
breaking  we  carried  my  captain  on  a  litter  to  the 
Maryland  side  of  the  island.  Thence  we  were 
taken  over  to  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Canal,  and 
there  put  upon  a  canal-boat  which  took  us  to 
Edward's  Perry.  In  due  time  our  camp  at  Pooles- 
ville,  Maryland,  was  reached.  A  letter  to  his  sister, 
begun  a  day  or  two  before  by  Captain  Putnam's 
right  hand,  was  now  finished  by  his  left  hand. 

I  want  my  children  to  look  occasionally  upon 
the  photograph  of  my  captain,  which  hangs  upon 
a  wall  of  our  library,  and  to  note  his  empty  sleeve 
and  benignant  face,  albeit  the  latter  gives  sad  evi- 
dence of  the  physical  torment  from  which  he  was 
never  free  during  the  remaining  years  of  his  life. 
His  constant  mental  effort,  induced  by  muscular 


REMINISCENCES  7 

action  to  move  the  fingers  of  his  missing  hand, 
perplexed  his  mind  and  wore  away  his  life. 

There  was  another  Putnam,  Lieutenant  William 
Lowell,  who  received  his  mortal  wound  at  the 
Bluff  —  a  lad  of  high  resolve,  and  beautiful.  The 
golden  lock  of  hair  in  our  20th  album  belonged 
to  him. 

Perhaps  a  few  more  reminiscences  of  the  Bluff 
may  be  of  interest.  Going  back  to  the  beginning 
of  my  narrative,  my  company  crossed  the  river  to 
Virginia  in  a  scow  at  two  o'clock  p.  m.  or  thereabouts. 
Major  Paul  Eevere  crossed  at  the  same  time.  The 
river  was  eight  to  ten  feet  deep  and  some  six  hun- 
dred feet  wide  between  the  island  and  the  bluff. 
As  before  stated,  our  place  was  in  the  woods  on 
the  right,  and  our  instructions  were  to  deploy  as 
skirmishers,  which  we  did.  Before  our  line  was 
fairly  established  a  mounted  rebel,  peering  through 
glasses,  was  observed  slowly  approaching  along 
a  trail.  One  of  the  sergeants  was  nervously  anx- 
ious to  shoot  him.  He  was  restrained  by  Captain 
Putnam  until  he  had  steadied  down.  He  was  then 
permitted  to  fire.  His  shot  dropped  his  man,  and 
the  riderless  horse  returned  to  the  enemy's  lines. 
I  did  not  see  the  incident.  The  first  one  of  our 
company  to  be  hit  was  Captain  Putnam.  The  man 
who  shot  him  was  not  in  uniform.  He  wore  a  red 
shirt.  I  did  not  see  him.  The  captain  did.  The 
command  of  the  company  then  fell  upon  me.  We 
were  soon  engaged  with  rebels  who  appeared  to 
be  dismounted  cavalrymen.     It  did  not  take  long 


8  REMINISCENCES 

to  drive  them  off.  My  skirmishers  and  the  rebels, 
too,  fired  from  behind  trees.  My  recollection  is 
that  one  man  only  was  mortally  wounded  at  this 
time.  When  he  fell,  some  four  or  five  comrades 
proposed  to  carry  him  to  the  rear,  impelled  by 
various  natural  motives. 

It  was  then  my  good  fortune  to  have  my  line 
inspected  by  General  Edward  D.  Baker.  It  made 
me  wince  to  see  the  general,  so  handsome,  brave, 
and  cool,  expose  himself  with  such  noble  disdain 
of  friendly  trees.  He  asked  me  whether  I  could 
stand  off  the  rebels  from  working  through  those 
woods,  and  he  extended  and  readjusted  my  line. 
He  made  some  cheery  remark  as  he  left,  and  soon 
afterwards  was  killed. 

Our  main  line  was  now  hotly  engaged,  while  we, 
the  skirmishers,  had  not  much  to  do.  Some  of  my 
men,  however,  were  so  posted  as  to  get  good  shots 
at  the  rebels.  One  of  them  was  Private  John 
Leonard,  a  veteran  of  the  Crimean  War.  My  eye 
fell  upon  him  as  he  paused  a  moment  to  cut,  not 
bite,  a  bit  of  plug  tobacco.  I  approached  him  with 
the  remark,  "  Leonard,  I  think  that  is  just  what  I 
want  to  get  between  my  teeth."  He  gave  me  what 
I  wanted.  The  man  was  altogether  the  coolest 
man  on  our  side  at  that  time.  Later  on,  at  the 
river  bank,  he  pointed  out  a  log  and  offered  to  put 
me  across  on  that  log.  I  had  previously  had  my 
mother  send  to  our  camp  several  bottles  of  cod 
liver  oil  for  his  troubled  lungs.  Some  years  after- 
wards I  met  Leonard  as  he   ascended   the   steps 


REMINISCENCES  9 

of  the  State  House  at  Boston.  He  was  much 
wasted  by  consumption.  I  gave  him  a  lot  of 
money.  Per  contra,  I  discovered  a  number  of  my 
men  scared  pink  and  cowering  in  a  small  ravine. 
I  yanked  them  out  into  their  proper  positions. 
The  rebels  were  now  in  force  across  the  open  in 
the  woods,  firing  diagonally  upon  our  main  line, 
which  was  in  position  at  the  head  of  the  Bluff. 
Without  orders  I  took  six  men  and  posted  them 
behind  as  many  trees  immediately  opposite  the 
rebel  line.  I  equipped  myself,  too,  with  rifle  and 
cartridges.  The  rebels,  obscured  by  their  own 
smoke  and  busy  with  our  main  line,  did  not  ob- 
serve our  skirmish  fire  until  we  had  delivered  some 
half  dozen  shots  apiece  at  short  range,  which  must 
have  been  quite  effective.  They  then  let  fly  at  us 
what  appeared  to  be  a  company  or  regimental 
volley.  Corporal  Cowgill  dropped  with  a  ball  in 
or  through  his  side,  but  he  managed  to  get  off,  and 
the  rest  of  us  skedaddled  to  where  we  had  been 
put.  I  have  often  thought  that  the  issue  might 
have  been  different  if  I  had  had  the  sense  to  send 
word  to  Colonel  Lee  that  two  or  three  companies  in 
my  position  could  get  in  an  unexpected  fire  which 
would  wipe  out  anything  opposed  to  it.  The  same 
line  of  thought  presented  itself  the  second  day  of 
Fair  Oaks,  when  our  picket  line  stood  all  night 
long  right  up  against  the  retreating  rebel  columns, 
so  near  that  one  could  hear  the  tramp  of  men  and 
the  commands  of  officers  given  in  smothered  tones. 
But  then,  what  a  fine  thing  is  hind-sight,  and  how 
easy  it  is  to  fight  battles  upon  paper ! 


10  EEMINISCENCES 

One  more  incident  at  the  Bluff  comes  back  to 
me.  Captain  Alois  Babo  and  Lieutenant  Reinhold 
Wesselhoeft  essayed  to  swim  the  river  with  packs 
of  clothing  on  their  backs.  I  called  them  back 
and  persuaded  them  to  throw  away  their  packs. 
Again  they  started  in,  and  struck  out  together  for 
Harrison's  Island.  I  watched  them  now  and  then 
until  I  could  see  them  no  more.  They  perished, 
whether  carried  to  their  watery  graves  by  the  rapid 
current  alone  or  hastened  thereto  by  hostile  bullets 
I  do  not  know. 

One  is  always  startled  when  he  meets  a  man 
who  he  thought  was  dead.  A  private  of  Com- 
pany H,  whose  name  escapes  my  memory,  was  left 
for  dead  at  the  Bluff  Some  months  later  he 
walked  into  camp  with  a  letter  of  condolence 
which  I  had  written  to  his  mother.  It  seems  that 
a  bullet  had  made  the  half  circuit  of  his  body  be- 
tween his  skin  and  his  ribs,  coming  out  at  a  point 
in  his  back  about  opposite  the  point  where  it  went 
in.  He  had  revived  in  time  to  be  taken  to  Libby 
Prison,  where  he  passed  the  winter  of  1861-62. 
My  recollection  is  that  he  based  an  application  for 
promotion  upon  the  good  opinion  of  him  expressed 
in  my  letter  to  his  mother. 

My  watch  and  sword,  already  referred  to,  de- 
serve further  mention.  The  watch  was  purchased 
from  my  valet,  an  undersized  German  named  Au- 
gust, whose  photograph  you  will  find  in  our  20th 
album.  The  consideration  paid  was  eight  dollars. 
It  hung  for  many  years  in  one  of  our  little  parlors. 


REMINISCENCES  11 

Then  it  mysteriously  disappeared.  My  theory  is 
that  it  was  taken  by  a  woman  peddler  who  had 
Bibles  for  sale.  Your  mother,  I  believe,  smiles  at 
the  theory  with  an  expression  of  incredulity.  The 
sword  hangs  upon  a  wall  of  our  library.  My  name 
and  rank  as  First  Lieutenant  are  inscribed  upon 
the  hilt.  It  was  given  to  me  by  my  beloved  col- 
lege chum,  Colonel  William  H.  Forbes. 

It  was  no  part  of  my  duty  to  handle  a  rifle  in 
action,  and  I  was  green  and  foolish  to  do  so  at  the 
Bluff,  instead  of  looking  after  the  men.  Nor  was 
I  right  in  leaving  my  assigned  position  on  the  skir- 
mish line.  On  the  first  day  of  Fair  Oaks,  when 
my  Company  D  was  in  perfect  discipline,  I  did  the 
same  thing,  standing  as  captain  in  the  front  rank 
on  the  right  as  I  fired.  That,  too,  was  wrong. 
Again,  on  picket  at  Fair  Oaks,  I  fired  repeatedly  at 
some  annoying  rebels.  On  that  occasion  I  wit- 
nessed a  beautiful  duel  between  one  of  my  men 
and  a  rebel.  Both  men  stepped  from  the  woods 
into  a  road  simultaneously,  each  sighted  the  other 
with  deliberation,  both  fired  at  short  range,  and 
both  missed.  Finally  I  sent  in  for  a  telescopic 
rifle,  which  was  handled  with  desired  result  by  the 
sharpshooter  who  brought  it  out.  At  the  same 
post  I  drew  the  rebel  picket  fire  by  elevating  my 
hat  from  behind  a  stump.  I  then  retired  from  the 
stump,  leaving  my  hat  to  be  fired  at.  In  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  at  some  place  now  forgotten, 
I  established  an  advanced  picket  post  in  the  woods, 
giving  strict  orders  that  no  one  should  for  a  mo- 


12  REMINISCENCES 

ment  sit  down.  I  returned  to  my  line,  followed 
soon  by  one  of  the  pickets  with  a  bullet-hole 
through  one  of  his  feet.  He  had  coolly  disposed 
himself  on  the  ground  with  one  leg  crossing  the 
other  so  as  to  throw  one  foot  up  in  the  air. 
Through  that  foot  a  round  bullet  had  made  one  of 
the  most  symmetrical  holes  it  was  ever  my  plea- 
sure to  look  through.  There  were  a  few  rough, 
drunken  characters  in  my  company.  Upon  one 
occasion  such  a  one  called  me  by  a  phrase  which 
reflected  upon  my  pedigree.  I  struck  him  down 
with  the  blunt  edge  of  my  sword.  His  comrades 
remarked,  "  Served  him  right."  Subsequently  the 
same  fellow  was  tied  to  a  tree.  He  cursed  me  out, 
saying,  among  other  things,  il  Robespierre  would 
not  own  you  for  a  brother."  Adjutant  Charles  L. 
Peirson  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  I  put  a 
rope  around  that  man's  neck  and  led  him  to  head- 
quarters, where  I  requested  permission  to  hang 
him.     The  man  deserted. 

At  Fair  Oaks,  the  20th,  while  supporting  Kirby's 
battery,  repulsed  with  much  slaughter  an  impetuous 
charge  of  the  rebels.  The  left  wing  of  the  20th, 
being  in  the  open,  did  its  work  more  quickly  than 
did  the  right  wing,  skirting  the  woods.  There  the 
rebels  fought  more  stoutly,  but  finally  were  beaten 
and  broken.  In  utter  disorder  they  streamed  out 
of  the  woods  across  our  front,  and  were  shot  down 
in  a  merciless  manner.  In  a  moment  of  sympathy 
and  weakness  I  ordered  my  company  to  cease 
firing.     A  soldier  called   out,  "Remember   Ball's 


EEMINISCENCES  13 

Bluff ! "  He  had  in  mind  the  shooting  of  our  men 
as  they  swam  the  Potomac.  I  told  him  that  that 
was  just  what  I  did  remember.  Darkness  ended 
the  battle.  A  large  number  of  rebel  wounded  were 
then  gathered  in,  among  others  General  Pettigrew, 
to  whom  I  gave  my  rubber  blanket  when  the  rain 
began  to  fall,  and  a  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  a  Georgia 
regiment,  who  prayed  loud  enough  to  be  heard  all 
over  the  field  and  then  died. 

After  the  action  at  Savage's  Station  it  was  my 
fortune  to  establish  a  picket  line  in  the  woods. 
Under  cover  of  darkness  I  worked  my  men  right 
up  against  the  rebels,  some  of  whom  carried  lan- 
terns in  their  hands  while  others  carried  off  their 
wounded.  There  was  small  temptation  to  molest 
them.  At  last  I  became  conscious  that  our  army 
had  resumed  its  retreat  to  the  James,  and  I  awaited 
at  first  with  composure  an  order  to  follow  after. 
The  hours  passed,  but  no  order  came.  The  gray 
dawn  would  soon  begin  to  break,  and  the  convic- 
tion was  forced  upon  me  that  my  command  was  to 
be  sacrificed.  I  thought  it  all  out,  and  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  intended  we  should 
retard  the  advance  of  the  enemy  to  the  utmost. 
That  meant  serious  work.  I  remember  saying  to 
myself  that  if  I  got  out  of  this  hole  I  should  never 
again  be  scared.  Happily  the  summons  came  in 
the  nick  of  time,  and  your  Popsy-wopsy  escaped. 

At  Glendale  I  was  quite  sure  that  I  was  badly 
wounded.  An  examination  discovered  three  small 
scratches  made  by  as  many  buckshot,  which  had 


14  REMINISCENCES 

perforated  my  clothes  and  reddened  the  skin  of 
my  left  side.  I  did  not  write  home  about  it,  and 
was  amazed  and  amused  to  receive  a  letter  from 
my  father  chiding  me  for  not  advising  him  of  my 
hurt.  A  disabled  officer  of  the  20th,  on  his  way  to 
Boston,  had  reported  me  wounded,  and  indeed  I 
am  so  put  down  among  the  statistics.  Lieutenant 
Henry  L.  Abbott  had  much  the  same  experience 
at  the  same  place.  He,  too,  received  a  scratch 
which  he  magnified  into  something  awful.  As  a 
consequence  he  handed  over  the  command  of  his 
company  to  a  sergeant  and  moved  towards  the  rear 
as  required  by  the  regulation  tactics.  As  Abbott 
was  wont  to  tell  the  story,  he  soon  said  to  and  of 
himself, "  You  damned  fool,  you  are  not  hurt."  He 
then  resumed  command  of  his  company.  I  did 
have  several  close  calls,  however,  at  Glendale.  A 
bullet  furrowed  my  clothes  right  down  to  the 
stomach ;  the  shock  was  as  though  some  one  had 
struck  me  a  blow  on  that  part.  An  exploding 
cannon-ball  killed  two  files  of  men  on  my  right, 
burning  my  cheek,  singeing  my  beard,  frizzling  my 
eyebrows  and  eyelashes,  and  making  my  eyes  ache. 
Lieutenant  James  J.  Lowell  did  not  get  off  so  well. 
I  saw  him  fall  forward  when  he  received  his  mortal 
wound.  We  left  him  and  others  at  a  farmhouse 
with  a  Union  surgeon,  and  he  there  died  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  Meanwhile,  his  sister  in  the 
service,  it  may  be  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  had 
awaited  his  arrival  on  the  James.  She  embraced 
his  sword  only. 


REMINISCENCES  15 

At  this  same  battle  we  swept  through  an  aban- 
doned battery  where  there  had  been  hot  fighting. 
A  horse  stood  by  the  side  of  a  gun,  his  head  droop- 
ing over  his  dead  master.  At  Antietam  I  noticed 
two  horses  standing  quietly  in  the  midst  of  much 
sound  and  great  destruction,  the  one  cribbing  the 
neck  of  the  other  in  a  friendly  way.  At  Malvern 
Hill  I  covered  the  upturned  face  of  a  dying  officer 
with  my  handkerchief,  and  moistened  the  parched 
tongue  of  a  dying  horse  with  water  from  my  can- 
teen. The  officer  was  beyond  the  realms  of  con- 
sciousness, but  the  horse  begged  through  his 
appealing  eyes  for  more.  It  was  here  that  Major 
Revere  rode  up  to  my  company  and  dismounted. 
While  conversing  he  leaned  against  his  horse  and 
fell  asleep. 

The  seven  days  of  battle  on  the  Peninsula  were 
six  victories  and  one  defeat.  The  whole  was  a 
retreat.  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  would  have  put 
us  into  Richmond  six  times  over. 

On  the  night  of  South  Mountain  day,  it  became 
necessary  to  halt  my  company  so  that  the  dead 
body  of  General  J.  L.  Reno  might  be  carried  by. 
As  a  result  my  command  became  separated  from 
the  companies  ahead.  The  gap  between  us  was 
further  widened  by  a  second  halt,  this  time  to  let 
General  George  B.  McClellan  and  his  long  escort 
pass.  I  resumed  the  march  in  the  expectation  of 
overtaking  the  20th.  The  night  was  made  beau- 
tiful by  the  camp-fires  of  two  hostile  armies  blazing 
in  all  directions.     While  trudging  along  without 


16  REMINISCENCES 

the  slightest  apprehension,  I  heard  from  afar  off 
through  the  darkness  our  family  whistle,  and  knew 
at  once  that  brother  Ned  was  seeking  me.  We 
whistled  at  each  other  until  he  rode  up  with  the 
startling  information  that  if  I  was  not  already 
within  the  enemy's  lines  I  should  certainly  get 
there  unless  I  turned  about  p.  d.  q.  The  about- 
face  movement  was  executed  with  rapidity. 

Your  Uncle  Edward  was  not  a  contentious  man, 
—  far  from  it ;  but  he  was  one  of  the  few  men  I 
knew  who  really  seemed  to  enjoy  a  fight.  He 
appeared  to  go  into  action  with  grim  delight,  and 
to  get  out  of  it  with  something  like  regret.  And 
yet  in  a  marked  degree  he  had  that  peculiar  ten- 
derness which  is  so  often  the  characteristic  of 
strong  men.  I  shall  never  forget  him  on  Antietam 
day,  as  he  dashed  by  with  General  N.  J.  T.  Dana's 
staff,  waving  his  sword  in  recognition  of  the  20th, 
with  the  light  of  battle  on  his  countenance. 
Throughout  that  same  Antietam  night  he  wan- 
dered over  the  field,  turning  up  the  faces  of  dead 
men  as  he  searched  for  the  brother  whom  he 
thought  was  dead.  Holding  my  shattered  left  arm, 
I  had  walked  right  through  the  rebel  ranks,  whose 
men  were  in  much  confusion  and  too  busy  with 
their  onward  work  to  notice  or  to  care  for  my 
presence.  A  shot  in  the  back,  whether  by  chance 
or  design,  dropped  a  Union  soldier  who  preceded 
me  by  a  few  yards.  Before  long  I  gained  the  little 
farmhouse  marked  on  the  maps  as  the  Nicodemus 
House.     The  yard  was  full  of  wTounded  men,  and 


REMINISCENCES  17 

the  floor  of  the  parlor,  where  I  lay  down,  was  well 
covered  with  them.  Among  others,  Captain  0. 
W.  Holmes,  Jr.,  walked  in,  the  back  of  his  neck 
clipped  by  a  bullet.  The  baggage  train  had  not 
been  up  for  many  a  day,  so  that  I  had  replenished 
my  wardrobe  by  appropriations  of  chance  clothing 
from  various  sources.  It  so  happened  that  I  wore 
on  that  day  the  light  blue  trousers  and  dark  blue 
blouse  of  a  private  soldier.  When  the  rebels,  a 
little  later,  were  busy  in  the  yard,  paroling  some 
and  taking  others  to  the  rear,  paying  marked 
attention,  of  course,  to  officers,  I  was  glad  to  have 
taken  the  precaution  to  remove  my  shoulder-straps 
and  to  conceal  them  with  my  sword  under  a 
blanket. 

The  first  Confederate  to  make  his  appearance 
put  his  head  through  the  window  and  said :  "  Yan- 
kees?" "Yes."  "Wounded?"  "Yes."  "Would 
you  like  some  water?"  A  wounded  man  always 
wants  some  water.  He  off  with  his  canteen,  threw 
it  into  the  room,  and  then  resumed  his  place  in  the 
skirmish  line  and  his  work  of  shooting  retreating 
Yankees.  In  about  fifteen  minutes  that  good- 
hearted  fellow  came  back  to  the  window  all  out  of 
breath,  saying :  "  Hurry  up  there  !  Hand  me  my 
canteen !  I  am  on  the  double-quick  myself  now ! " 
Some  one  twirled  the  canteen  to  him,  and  away  he 
went. 

An  Irishman  in  the  yard,  whose  side  had  been 
scooped  out  by  a  shell,  was  asked  by  a  rebel 
whether  he  could  walk.     He  replied  humorously : 


18  REMINISCENCES 

"  Would  I  be  here  if  I  could  ?  I  '11  just  leave  it  to 
yourself."  And  then  he  died.  For  a  while  the  farm- 
house appeared  to  be  midway  between  the  oppos- 
ing forces.  Shells  broke  the  window  panes,  and 
ploughed  up  the  wounded  in  the  yard,  but  not  a 
shot  went  through  the  house. 

During  some  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  only  we 
were  within  the  rebel  lines.  Late  that  afternoon 
ambulances  carried  us  off  to  Keedysville.  Not  us 
alone.  I  directed  some  one  to  bring  along  many 
jars  of  preserves  which  burdened  the  tables  and 
the  shelves  of  the  little  house.  My  recollection  is 
uncertain  as  to  the  time  which  elapsed  before  my 
arm  received  attention.  Sometimes  I  think  it  was 
twenty -four  hours.  At  other  times  I  make  it  thirty- 
two  hours.  At  all  events,  when  they  did  get  at 
me  it  was  much  swollen,  and  they  and  I  scooped 
out  the  maggots  from  my  side  and  arm  which  had 
been  generated  by  the  wound.  The  long  delay 
was  all  right.  Every  one  was  immensely  busy, 
too  busy  with  more  urgent  cases,  until  a  cavalry- 
man from  Philadelphia  had  looked  at  me  as  he 
passed,  and,  looking  again,  had  asked  my  name. 
"  Hallowell,"  I  replied.  "  Are  you  from  Philadel- 
phia ?  "  "  My  father  is  Morris  L.  Hallowell  of  that 
city,"  I  said.  "What!  "he  exclaimed.  "Why,  I 
know  him !  "  It  was  not  long  before  he  had  sev- 
eral surgeons  at  me.  Among  them  was  Surgeon 
Thomas  Antisell,  the  Medical  Director  of  the  12th 
Army  Corps.  He  said  there  was  a  chance  to  save 
the  arm,  and  asked  me  whether  he  should  try.     I 


REMINISCENCES  19 

may  have  told  him  to  take  the  chance,  but  I  think 
I  told  him  I  did  not  care.  At  all  events,  after 
etherization  I  found  the  arm  there,  where  it  now 
is,  a  beautiful  exhibit  of  the  surgical  operation 
known  as  exsection.  The  surgeon  handed  me 
three  quarters  of  an  inch  of  bone  to  keep  as  a  sou- 
venir. I  told  him  to  throw  it  away.  When  com- 
ing out  of  my  stupor  I  heard  some  one  say,  "  He 
will  hardly  pull  through."  I  did  not  then  care  a 
rap  whether  I  should  pull  through,  and  I  think 
they  might  have  buried  me  alive  without  protest. 
It  may  have  been  the  next  day  or  later  when  a 
woman  of  masculine  but  not  ungainly  presence 
burst  into  my  room,  exclaiming,  "  Who  has  some 
brandy  ?  "  My  flask  was  at  her  service.  She  dis- 
appeared, to  return  in  time  to  sit  by  my  side  and 
to  say  that  her  wounded  husband,  in  the  adjoining 
room,  was  sinking  fast  when  my  brandy  revived 
him.  The  husband  was  General  Francis  C.  Barlow. 
While  lying  on  my  cot  I  was  startled  to  see  my 
brother  Ned  come  wandering  in.  He  looked  at 
me  a  second,  saying,  "  They  told  me  thee  was 
dead."  He  then  attempted  to  get  up  to  the  top 
of  the  house  or,  it  may  be,  to  an  attic  by  a  rude 
set  of  steps,  as  I  remember  them,  or  perhaps  a 
ladder.  He  had  maintained  his  search  for  his 
brother,  albeit  his  oncoming  typhoid  fever  had 
unhinged  his  mind.  My  loud  calls  brought  attend- 
ants, who  persuaded  him  down  and  cared  for  him. 
The  next  surprise  was  my  blessed  father.  How 
in  the  name  of  all  that  is  rational  his  beaming  face 


20  REMINISCENCES 

was  then  and  there  permitted  to  shine  upon  me  I 
knew  not.  Was  he  tired  out?  Not  a  bit  tired. 
Father  never  tired  when  he  had  something  to  his 
fancy  to  put  through.  Into  a  hack  Ned  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Palfrey  and  I  were  hustled.  Had 
any  one  ever  before  seen  a  hack  in  Keedysville  ? 
Ned  carried  on  pretty  hard,  pulling  at  the  cur- 
tains, and  starting  at  uniformed  men  who  he 
thought  were  after  him  for  desertion.  We  were 
driven  to  Hagerstown.  There  father  put  us  into  an 
empty  freight  car.  At  this  juncture  the  thought 
came  into  his  mind  that  the  floor  of  a  freight  car 
would  not  be  a  suitable  place  for  him.  Through 
an  open  door  of  a  house  near  by  he  espied  a  rock- 
ing-chair. No  one  was  in  the  room  to  consent. 
The  train  might  start  at  any  moment.  Promptly 
he  appropriated  the  chair,  and  made  off  with  it. 
His  triumph  was  cut  short  by  a  pursuing  woman. 
Her  he  pacified  by  a  token  of  good  will  big  enough 
to  put  a  rocking-chair  into  every  room  of  her 
house.  As  the  train  started,  a  little  contraband 
boy  begged  to  be  taken  along.  Father  yanked 
him  into  a  dark  corner  of  ;the  car,  and  off  we 
started  on  an  all-night  journey  to  Philadelphia. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Palfrey,  under  pressure  of  great 
suffering,  begged  hard  to  be  put  off  at  the  several 
stations  where  the  train  stopped.  Altogether  it 
was  a  great  night  for  father  as  he  sat  contented, 
comfortable,  and  satisfied  in  that  rocking-chair, 
with  three  officers  and  one  little  contraband  under 
his  masterful  control.     At  Philadelphia  the  contra- 


REMINISCENCES  21 

band  disappeared.  The  others  were  taken  to  our 
home,  the  House  called  Beautiful,  as  Doctor  0.  W. 
Holmes  has  written.  Wounded  officers  of  the 
20th  had  been  there  before.  Our  home  was  a 
hospital,  so  to  speak,  whose  matron  was  your 
Grandmother  Hallowell,  and  whose  nurses  were 
your  three  sister  aunts,  Anna,  Emily,  and  Susan. 
Among  the  officers  cared  for  was  Captain  George 
A.  Schmitt,  then  late  professor  of  German  at  Har- 
vard College.  Captain  Schmitt  had  received  five 
wounds,  of  no  great  import,  at  the  Bluff.  He 
would  lie  on  his  cot  in  the  parlor,  patient  and  suf- 
ficiently polite,  but  somewhat  uncommunicative. 
Evidently  something  was  not  just  right.  He  kept 
the  sisters  guessing  for  some  days,  when  at  last 
Anna  had  an  inspiration.  She  filled  a  pipe  with 
tobacco,  which  she  handed  to  him  with  lighted 
taper.  Schmitt's  broad  German  face  beamed  with 
smiles,  and  thereafter  he  overflowed  with  conver- 
sation. 

In  1868  your  mother  and  I  made  our  wedding 
trip  to  Antietam  and  other  places.  Of  course  we 
hunted  up  the  Nicodemus  house,  where  we  found 
a  worthy  couple  of  that  name.  They  proved  to 
be  Union  people  who  had  fled  upon  the  approach 
of  battle  on  September  17,  1862.  I  startled  the 
old  lady  by  asking  after  a  little  clock  which  had 
stood  in  a  certain  place  on  that  day.  She  showed 
us  the  clock  in  an  adjoining  room,  to  which  it  had 
been  removed.  Her  curiosity  was  further  excited 
when  I  asked  her  what  she  had  intended  to  do 


22  REMINISCENCES 

with  all  those  jars  of  preserves.  She  replied  that 
their  business  was  to  make  preserves,  and  that  a 
large  supply  was  just  ready  for  market  when  the 
battle  came  on,  and  the  soldiers  took  it  all.  I 
confessed  the  theft,  and  was  forgiven  even  before 
she  was  induced  to  accept  twenty  dollars.  As  we 
departed  your  mother  stubbed  her  toe  against  a 
bit  of  iron  embedded  in  the  yard,  which  proved  to 
be  an  exploded  Hotchkiss  shell.  She  brought  it 
home.  The  shell  now  stands  upon  the  mantel- 
piece of  our  library.  The  two  large  shells  standing 
at  the  fireplace  were  brought  by  your  mother  and 
me  in  1887  from  Morris  Island,  South  Carolina: 
the  round  shell  from  the  site  of  Fort  Wagner; 
the  conical  shell  from  the  site  of  Fort  Gregg,  at 
the  northern  end  of  the  island.  Both  are  unex- 
ploded  Union  shells  which,  I  dare  say,  were  fired 
at  the  respective  forts  by  the  war-ships  of  our 
navy.  The  conical  bullets  which  are  strung  to- 
gether by  a  wire,  were  picked  up  on  the  beach  of 
Folly  Island,  near  the  site  of  the  camp  of  the  55th, 
in  1863.  They  do  not  appear  to  have  been  fired. 
When  the  20th  regiment  made  its  start  from 
Readville,  Mass.,  for  the  South,  a  certain  member 
of  Company  H  announced  that  he  proposed  to 
throw  his  New  Testament  from  the  car  window  to 
the  first  pretty  girl  he  should  see.  In  those  days 
great  numbers  of  people  would  stand  by  the  road- 
side, waving  adieus  to  the  soldiers  in  the  passing 
trains.  The  soldier's  requirements  for  beauty  were 
not  satisfied  until  the  train  reached  the  neighbor- 


EEMINISCENCES  23 

hood  of  Wilmington,  Delaware.  At  that  point 
there  were  three  girls  standing  in  the  gateway  of 
a  country  residence,  waving  their  handkerchiefs. 
"  There  she  is  at  last ! "  he  exclaimed,  as  he  threw 
his  Testament  at  the  middle  girl  of  the  three. 
Every  one  laughed,  and  then  dismissed  the  inci- 
dent. Some  weeks  later  he  brought  to  my  tent 
for  inspection  a  neat  little  Testament  and  a  letter 
from  the  sender,  in  which  she  expressed  some 
regret  that  he  should  have  been  willing  to  part 
with  his  Testament,  which,  however,  she  would 
keep,  having  sent  to  him  one  to  take  its  place. 
She  had  discovered  his  name,  company,  and  regi- 
ment written  upon  the  fly-leaf  of  the  book.  The 
letter  was  altogether  proper  and  well  expressed,  as 
indeed  it  could  not  be  otherwise,  coming  as  it  did 
from  my  cousin,  Ellen  Penrose. 

When  the  20th  passed  through  New  York  city 
it  camped  for  some  hours  in  City  Hall  Park,  where 
the  Post  Office  now  stands.  At  dinner  hour  we 
were  visited  by  Grandfather  and  Grandmother 
Haydock  and  one  of  their  kid  daughters.  The 
latter  seemed  to  be  entertained  by  watching  me  as 
I  inspected  the  canteens  of  the  men  and  emptied 
on  the  ground  every  one  which  contained  whiskey. 
I  paid  some  little  attention  to  the  child,  such  as  a 
buck  of  twenty-two  years  would  pay  to  a  kid  of 
fifteen  years.  Indeed,  I  gave  her  my  photograph. 
In  later  years  she  became  your  mother,  and  now 
will  tell  you  how  she  carried  that  photograph  face 
outwards  in  the  omnibus,  so  that  the  passengers 
might  see  her  soldier. 


24  EEMINISCENCES 

There  is  nothing  exceptional  about  the  reminis- 
cences which  now  have  been  put  down  in  writing. 
They  are  of  a  kind  common  to  many  thousands 
of  men  who  were  in  the  service.  My  sufficient 
apology  for  writing  them  out  is  the  oft-repeated 
request  of  the  aforesaid  mother.  It  has  long  been 
my  life  to  do  everything  she  desires.  If  you 
would  be  as  happy  as  I  am,  you  would  better  cul- 
tivate the  same  habit. 

Your  father, 


N.  P.  HALLOWELL. 


Noddebo,  West  Medford,  Mass., 
12th  Mo.,  25th,  1897. 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 


WAR   OF   THE  REBELLION. 


Rebecca, 
a  slave  girl  from  new  orleans 


THE 


NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 


m  THE 


WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION. 


BY 

NORWOOD  P.  HALLOWELL, 

COLONEL,  FIFTY-FIFTH  KEGIMENT,   MASSACHUSETTS  VOLUNTEERS. 


Eead  before  the  Military  Historical   Society  of 
Massachusetts,  January  5,  1892. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

1897. 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  N.  P.  Hallowell. 


Slntberstta  $r«»: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 


IN  THE 


WAR  OF    THE    REBELLION. 


Once  upon  a  time,  at  our  old  home  in  Philadelphia, 
there  were  two  little  girls  whose  names  were  Rebecca 
and  Rosa.  They  had  Caucasian  features,  an  abundance 
of  long  wavy  hair,  and  complexions  that  were  suggestive 
merely  of  a  clime  sunnier  than  our  own.  Taking  one  of 
their  hands  into  your  own,  your  eye  might  have  discovered 
at  the  finger  tips  a  color  of  a  darker  hue  than  the  other 
parts.  It  was  the  fatal  single  drop  of  negro  blood  that 
cursed  the  whole  beautiful  fabric  and  made  it  possible  for 
these  children  to  be  fugitive  slaves.  Hid  away  in  the 
barn  of  our  country  residence  was  another  fugitive,  —  a 
tall,  lithe,  muscular  man,  black  as  anthracite,  Daniel 
Dangerfield  by  name,  now  forgotten  no  doubt,  but  then 
enjoying  for  a  brief  period  a  national  reputation.  The 
police  force  of  Philadelphia  was  watching  for  that  man. 
The  detectives  looked  mysterious  as  they  went  about  on 
their  false  scents  and  failed  to  see  our  Daniel  as  he  passed 
on  to  the  next  station  of  the  Underground  Railroad,  com- 
fortably seated  in  my  mother's  carriage,  the  curtains 
drawn,  my  brother  Edward  on  the  box  quite  ready  to  use 


2  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

his  five-shooter,  and  a  younger  brother  in  the  less  heroic 
part  of  driver. 

These  fugitive-slave  scenes,  once  so  familiar,  are  recalled 
because,  to  appreciate  correctly  the  military  significance  of 
the  arming  of  citizens  of  African  descent,  it  is  necessary  to 
forget  for  the  moment  the  great  "  Amendments,"  and  to 
remember  the  old  times.  To  estimate  the  colored  man 
as  a  soldier  it  is  essential  to  recall  his  status  before  the 
war,  for  the  reason  that  his  previous  condition  of  slavery 
in  the  South,  and  his  social,  political,  commercial  and 
religious  ostracism  in  the  North,  ought  naturally,  and  in 
fact  does  do  somewhat,  to  interpret  his  qualities  when 
bearing  arms.  The  subject  is  complex.  The  character- 
istics of  the  English  are  such  that  the  expression,  an 
"English  soldier,"  conveys  a  distinct  idea;  the  words,  a 
"  German  soldier,"  at  once  suggest  a  well-defined  picture. 
To  say  simply  a  "  French  soldier "  gives  still  another  well- 
understood  type.  A  "  negro  soldier  "  or  "  colored  soldier  " 
conveys,  no  doubt,  to  most  minds  some  similar  plain 
meaning ;  but  is  the  impression  made  necessarily  a  correct 
one  ?  Is  not  the  expression  "  a  colored  soldier  "  as  vague 
as  the  expression  "  a  white  soldier  "  ?  I  think  it  is.  Had 
we  only  to  deal  with  the  thick-lipped  negro  of  Congo,  the 
subject  would  be  simple  enough.  But  we  are  dealing 
now  with  the  soldiers  of  a  people  in  whose  veins  is  an 
admixture  of  the  blood  of  every  nationality  that  is  repre- 
sented on  this  continent.  The  blood  that  coursed  through 
the  veins  of  our  little  slave  girls  was,  barring  the  one 
fatal  drop,  the  same  blood  that  coursed  through  the  veins 
of  one  of  the  proud  families  of  Louisiana,  —  a  family  that 
sent  its  sons,  the  white  ones,  to  our  New  England  col- 
leges.    It  was  not  the  same  thing  —  ninety-nine  one  hun- 


IN  THE  WAR   OF  THE  REBELLION.  3 

dredths  of  it  was  not  —  that  flowed  beneath  the  skin  of 
Daniel  Dangerfield,  innocent  as  he  was,  apparently,  of  any 
such  admixture,  and  yet  it  is  all  called  "negro." 

Nicholas  Said,  a  private  in  our  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  was  a  native  of  Bornou,  Eastern  Soudan,  Central 
Africa.  He  was  tattooed  on  his  forehead  after  the  manner 
of  the  ruling  class  of  his  tribe.  His  linguistic  ability  was 
very  marked.  In  the  regiment  he  wrote  and  spoke  flu- 
ently the  English,  French,  German  and  Italian  languages ; 
while  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  master  of  Kanouri, 
(his  vernacular),  Mandra,  Arabic,  Turkish  and  Russian,  — 
a  total  of  nine  languages.  The  First  Louisiana  Native 
Guards,  mustered  into  the  service  at  New  Orleans,  were 
recruited  from  the  free  colored  population  of  that  city. 
They  are  described  as  men  of  "  property  and  education,  a 
self-reliant  and  intelligent  class."  "  The  darkest  of  them," 
said  General  Butler,  "  were  about  the  complexion  of  the 
late  Mr.  Webster." 1  On  the  other  hand,  the  First  South 
Carolina  Regiment  had  not  one  mulatto  in  ten,  and  all 
the  enlisted  men  had  been  slaves. 

Such,  in  part,  were  the  heterogeneous  materials  that 
made  up  our  colored  regiments.  Obviously,  it  will  not  be 
safe  to  draw  many  arbitrary  conclusions  and  to  brand  the 
whole  as  distinctively  African.  Avoiding,  however,  any 
further  consideration  of  the  difficulties  suggested  by 
ethnology,  let  us  interpret  the  colored  soldier  as  best  we 
may  by  a  partial  review  of  his  record  in  the  War  of  the 
Slaveholders'  Rebellion.  "  The  war  for  the  Union  was 
not  the  first  one  in  which  the  African  fought  for  the 
liberties  of  our  country.  Black  faces  were  not  uncommon 
among  the  ranks  of  the  patriots  in  Seventeen  hundred 

1  Higginson's  History  of  Black  Regiments,  1. 


4  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Seventy-six.  The  first  man  to  fall  in  that  struggle  was 
Crispus  Attucks,  who  led  the  mob  in  its  attack  on  the 
British  troops  at  the  Boston  Massacre.  At  Bunker  Hill 
the  free  negroes  fought  intermingled  with  the  whites ; 
and  when  Major  Pitcairn  was  killed,  it  was  by  a  bullet 
from  a  negro's  rifle.  At  the  battle  of  Rhode  Island, 
Colonel  Greene's  black  regiment  repulsed  three  successive 
charges,  during  which  they  handled  a  Hessian  regiment 
severely.  In  the  War  of  1812  General  Jackson  issued  a 
proclamation  authorizing  the  formation  of  black  regiments, 
and  subsequently,  in  an  address  to  the  colored  troops 
thus  enlisted,  acknowledged  their  services  in  unstinted 
praise." 1  General  Washington,  with  characteristic  caution, 
wrote  to  Henry  Laurens :  "  The  policy  of  our  arming 
slaves  is  in  my  opinion  a  moot  point,  unless  the  enemy  set 
the  example.  .  .  .  Besides,  I  am  not  clear  that  a  discrimi- 
nation will  not  render  slavery  more  irksome  to  those  who 
remain  in  it."  He  adds,  however,  that  these  are  "  only 
the  first  crude  ideas  "  that  struck  him.  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, on  the  other  hand,  gave  his  unqualified  and  hearty 
support  to  the  measure.  "  An  essential  part  of  the  plan," 
he  urged,  "is  to  give  them  their  freedom  with  their 
muskets." 2 

The  first  systematic  attempt  to  recruit  colored  men  in 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  made  by  General  Hunter  at 
Hilton  Head.  His  effort  was  valuable  as  an  example  of 
how  not  to  do  it.  Impatient  at  the  slow  progress  of  his 
work,  he  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  forcing  the  freedmen 
into  the  ranks.  While  working  on  the  plantations  they 
were  rudely  seized  by  squads  of  soldiers  and  taken  into 

1  Fox's  Kegimental  Losses,  52. 

2  Livermore's  Historical  Eesearch,  168. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  5 

camp  as  prisoners.  Here  they  were  told  by  their  enemies 
that  they  were  to  be  returned  to  slavery  or  sent  to  Cuba. 
There  was  no  mutual  confidence  between  officers  and 
men.  Desertions  were  numerous,  discontent  general.  In 
five  months  the  regiment  was  disbanded  without  pay. 
One  company,  however,  maintained  its  organization,  doing 
some  good  work  by  hunting  down  and  driving  the  rebels 
from  St.  Simon's  Island,  —  a  job  that  had  been  initiated  by 
the  colored  residents  of  the  island  themselves.  Twenty- 
five  of  these  natives  had  armed  themselves,  under  the 
command  of  one  of  their  own  number,  whose  name  was 
John  Brown.  He  was  ambuscaded  and  shot  dead,  prob- 
ably the  first  black  man,  says  Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson, 
whose  recital  I  am  following,  almost  literally,  who  fell 
under  arms  in  the  war.  This  was  the  first  armed  en- 
counter, so  far  as  known,  between  the  rebels  and  their 
former  slaves ;  and  it  is  worth  noticing  that  the  attempt 
was  a  spontaneous  thing,  and  not  accompanied  by  any 
white  man.  The  men  were  not  soldiers,  nor  in  uniform. 
The  rebel  leader,  one  Miles  Hazard,  and  his  party  made 
good  their  escape.  In  the  following  year  there  was  cap- 
tured at  the  railroad  station  in  Jacksonville,  Florida,  a  box 
of  papers.  Among  them  was  a  letter  from  this  very 
Hazard  to  a  friend  describing  the  perils  of  that  adventure, 
and  saying,  "  If  you  wish  to  know  hell  before  your  time, 
go  to  St.  Simon's  and  be  hunted  ten  days  by  niggers." 1 

The  arming  of  slaves  by  Major-General  Hunter,  and  a 
similar  movement  initiated  by  Brigadier-General  Phelps  at 
New  Orleans,  stirred  President  Jefferson  Davis  to  the 
innermost  recesses  of  his  unhappy  mind.  On  August 
20th,  1862,  he  directed  that  both  generals  should  be  no 

1  Higginson's  History  of  Black  Regiments,  275. 


6  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

longer  held  and  treated  as  public  enemies  of  the  Confed- 
erate States,  but  as  outlaws ;  and  that  in  the  event  of  the 
capture  of  either  of  them,  or  that  of  any  other  commis- 
sioned officer  employed  in  drilling,  organizing  or  instructing 
slaves,  with  a  view  to  their  armed  service  in  the  war,  he 
should  not  be  regarded  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  but  held  in 
close  confinement  for  execution  as  a  felon  at  such  time  and 
place  as  might  be  ordered.  On  May  1,  1863,  the  Con- 
federate Congress  passed  an  act  which  outlawed  all  com- 
missioned white  officers  who  should  command  negroes  or 
mulattoes,  whether  slaves  ovfree,  in  arms  against  the  Con- 
federate States. 

The  attention  of  the  country  at  large  was  first  seriously 
directed  to  the  consideration  of  this  new  element  in  the 
army  when  Governor  John  A.  Andrew  obtained  an  order 
from  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  authorizing 
him  to  organize  persons  of  African  descent  into  separate 
corps  for  the  volunteer  military  service.  As  a  consequence, 
a  line  of  recruiting  depots,  running  from  Boston  to  St. 
Louis  in  the  West,  and  to  Fortress  Monroe  in  the  South, 
was  established  and  maintained  to  the  close  of  the  war. 
Two  infantry  regiments,  the  Fifty-fourth  and  Fifty-fifth, 
and  one  cavalry,  the  Fifth,  were  raised,  and  the  ranks  kept 
at  the  maximum  number ;  a  good  piece  of  work,  involving 
an  immense  amount  of  labor,  which  was  done  mainly  by 
two  citizens  of  Medford,  —  George  L.  Stearns  and  Richard 
P.  Hallowell. 

Public  opinion  in  the  North  was  either  avowedly  hostile 
to  this  scheme  or  entirely  sceptical  as  to  its  value.  In 
Philadelphia,  recruiting  was  attended  with  some  little 
danger,  and  with  so  much  annoyance  that  the  place  of 
rendezvous  was  kept  secret  and  the  squads  were  marched 


A  Lacerated  Slave. 

FROM    BATON    ROUGE,    LA. 


IN   THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  7 

under  cover  of  darkness  to  the  depot.  In  Ohio  it  was 
considered  a  good  joke  to  get  the  "darkies  on  to  Massa- 
chusetts/'—  a  joke  that  was  bitterly  repented  when  Ohio 
at  a  later  day  tried  in  vain  to  get  those  same  "  darkies  " 
credited  to  her  quota.  In  Boston  there  were  contemptu- 
ous remarks  by  individuals  from  both  extremes  of  society  ; 
by  certain  members  of  a  prominent  club,  who  later  on 
hissed  the  Fifty-fourth  Regiment  from  their  windows  as  it 
marched  on  its  way  to  the  front ;  and  by  a  Boston  journal 
whose  editors  disgraced  their  columns  with  reflections  too 
vulgar  for  repetition.  There  was,  too,  much  good-natured 
laughing  and  harmless  joking  among  other  classes.  Be- 
fore long,  however,  the  prevailing  undertone  of  thought 
became  thoroughly  respectful  and  kind,  while  the  pecu- 
niary aid  given  was  limited  only  by  the  amount  asked  for. 
The  colored  man  from  the  free  States  as  a  soldier  may 
be  conveniently  and  fairly  tested  by  the  record  of  our 
Massachusetts  regiments,  for  the  reason,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  that  those  regiments  contained  every  known  variety 
of  citizen  of  African  descent,  and  were  recruited  from  every 
class  and  condition  of  colored  society.  That  the  Massa- 
chusetts regiments  were  not  composed  of  picked  men, 
except  as  to  physique,  is  conclusively  shown  by  the  statis- 
tics. Those  of  the  Fifty-fifth  are  here  given.  Those  of 
the  Fifty-fourth  do  not  materially  differ. 


Statistics  of  the  Fifty-Fifth  Regt.  Mass.  Vols. 

Birthplace. 


Maine 

.     .         1 

New  Jersey    .     .     . 

.     .        8 

Vermont    .... 

.     .         1 

Pennsylvania      .     . 

.     .     139 

Massachusetts     .     . 

.     .      22 

Maryland  .... 

.     .       19 

Rhode  Island      .     . 

.     .        3 

Virginia     .... 

.     .     106 

Connecticut   .     .     . 

.     .        4 

North  Carolina  .     . 

.     .       30 

New  York      .     .     . 

.     .       23 

Georgia      .... 

.     .         6 

8 


THE  NEGRO  AS   A  SOLDIER 


Alabama   . 

Mississippi 
Louisiana  . 
Arkansas  . 
Missouri  . 
Ohio  .  . 
Indiana 
Illinois  • 
Kentucky  . 


5 

9 

1 

1 

66 

222 

97 

56 


Tennessee  .  .  . 
Michigan  .... 
Wisconsin      .     .     . 

Iowa 

District  of  Columbia 
Nova  Scotia  .  .  . 
Canada      .... 

Africa 

Unknown  .... 


24 


10 
1 
3 
1 

11 


Trades  and  Occupations. 


Farmers 596 


Laborers 

Barbers 

Waiters 

Cooks   

Blacksmiths  .... 

Painters 

Teamsters      .... 

Grooms 

Hostlers 

Coachmen       .... 

Coopers 

Sailors 

Butchers 

Iron-workers  .... 
Shoemakers  .... 
Masons  and  Plasterers . 
Brick-makers  .  .  . 
Whitewashers  .  .  . 
Stonecuttei-s  .... 
Printers  .... 

Boatmen 

Teachers 

Clerks 

Porters 

^Carpenters  .... 
Wagon-makers  .  .  . 
Millers  .  .  .  .'  . 
Engineers 


74 

34 

50 

27 

21 

7 

27 

7 

9 

3 

5 

20 


16 
3 
2 
2 
3 


Firemen     .     . 
Coppersmith  . 
Machinist  .     . 
Rope-maker    . 
Fisherman 
Tinker  .     .     . 
Harness-m  aker 
Caulker      .     . 
Glass-grinder . 
Musician   .     . 
Moulder     .     . 
Confectioner  . 
Tobacco-worker 
Clergyman 
Broom-maker 
Baker    .     .     . 
Student     .     . 


No.  who  had  been  slaves  .  247 
No.  pure  blacks  ....  550 
No.  mixed  blood  ....  430 
No.  who  could  read  .  .  .  477 
No.   who   could   read   and 

write 319 

No.  church-members    .     .       52 

No.  married 219 

Average  age  .  .  .  231  years 
Average  height   .     .     5X  feet 1 


Every  school  has  its  obstreperous  boys,  every  class  at 
Harvard  has  its  fast  men,  every  regiment  in  the  service  had 
its  hard  characters.     The  problem  to  be  solved  in  almost 

1  Record  of  the  service  of  the  55th  Regiment  of  Mass.  Yols.  Infantry, 
110  et  seq. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF   THE  REBELLION.  9 

every  congregation  of  men  is  not  so  much  the  care  of  the 
virtuous  many  as  the  discipline  of  the  troublesome  few. 
Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw  was  not  a  sentimentalist. 
He  imposed  the  strict  discipline  of  the  Second  Regiment, 
from  which  he  came,  upon  the  Fifty-fourth.  The  men  of 
a  slave  regiment  required,  and  in  the  case  of  the  First 
South  Carolina  received,  treatment  very  different  from 
that  required  by  mixed  regiments  like  the  Fifty-fourth  and 
Fifty-fifth.  In  a  slave  regiment  the  harsher  forms  of 
punishment  were,  or  ought  to  have  been,  unknown,  so  that 
every  suggestion  of  slavery  might  be  avoided.  This  was 
Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson's  enlightened  method,  —  the 
method  of  kindness,  and  it  was  successful.  Colonel 
Shaw's  method  was  the  method  of  coercion,  and  it  too 
was  successful.  The  unruly  members  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
and  Fifty-fifth  were  stood  on  barrels,  bucked,  gagged  and, 
if  need  be,  shot ;  in  fact,  treated  as  white  soldiers  were  in 
all  well-disciplined  regiments.  The  squads  of  recruits 
which  arrived  at  Readville  for  the  Fifty-fifth  could  hardly 
at  first  sight  have  been  called  picked  men.  They  were 
poor  and  ragged.  Upon  arrival  they  were  marched  to  the 
neighboring  pond,  disrobed,  washed  and  uniformed.  Their 
old  clothes  were  burnt.  The  transformation  was  quite 
wonderful.  The  recruit  was  very  much  pleased  with  the 
uniform.  He  straightened  up,  grew  inches  taller,  lifted, 
not  shuffled,  his  feet,  began  at  once  to  try,  and  to  try  hard, 
to  take  the  position  of  the  soldier,  the  facings  and  other 
preliminary  drill,  so  that  his  ambition  to  carry  "  one  of 
those  muskets  "  might  be  gratified.  When  finally  he  was 
entrusted  with  the  responsible  duties  of  a  guard,  there  was 
nothing  quite  so  magnificent  and,  let  me  add,  quite  so 
reliable,  as  the  colored  volunteer.     The  effect  of  camp  dis- 


10  THE  NEGRO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

cipline  on  his  character  was  very  marked.  His  officers 
were  gentlemen  who  understood  the  correct  orthography 
and  pronunciation  of  the  word  "negro."  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life  he  found  himself  respected,  and  entrusted 
with  duties,  for  the  proper  performance  of  which  he  would 
be  held  to  a  strict  accountability.  Crossing  the  camp 
lines  by  connivance  of  the  guard  was  almost  unknown. 
"  Running  guard "  was  an  experiment  too  dangerous  to 
try.  The  niceties  of  guard-mounting  and  guard-duty,  the 
absolute  steadiness  essential  to  a  successful  dress-parade, 
were  all  appreciated  and  faithfully  observed.  The  clean- 
liness of  the  barracks  and  camp  grounds  at  Readville  was 
a  delight.  Not  a  scrap  of  loose  floating  paper  or  stuff 
of  any  kind  was  permitted.  The  muskets,  the  accoutre- 
ments, were  kept  clean  and  polished.  Every  one  was 
interested,  every  one  did  his  best.  The  Sunday  morning 
inspections  discovered  a  degree  of  perfection  that  received 
much  praise  from  several  regular  as  well  as  veteran  volun- 
teer officers.  It  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  thousands 
of  strangers  who  visited  the  camp  were  instantly  converted 
by  what  they  saw.  The  aptitude  of  the  colored  volunteer 
to  learn  the  manual  of  arms,  to  execute  readily  the  orders 
for  company  and  regimental  movements,  and  his  apparent 
inability  to  march  out  of  time  at  once  arrested  the  atten- 
tion of  every  officer.  His  power  of  imitation  was  great, 
his  memory  for  such  movements  was  good,  and  his  ear  for 
time  or  cadence  perfect.  You  may  call  the  imitative 
power  a  sign  of  inferiority,  or  what  you  will.  We  have 
now  to  do  with  the  negro  as  a  soldier,  and  as  such  it  may 
be  accurately  said  that  the  average  colored  soldier  adapts 
himself  more  readily  to  the  discipline  of  a  camp,  and 
acquires  what  is  called  the  drill,  in  much  less  time  than 


IN  THE   WAR  OP   THE   REBELLION.  11 

the  average  white  soldier.  These  characteristics  stand 
out  clear  and  undisputed  by  those]  who  have  had  expe- 
rience in  both  kinds  of  regiments.  Treated  kindly  and 
respectfully,  the  average  colored  citizen  is  the  most  inof- 
fensive of  persons.  He  prefers  to  get  out  of  rather  than 
in  your  way.  Innately  he  is  a  gentleman.  Instinctively 
he  touches  his  hat  when  passing.  The  requirements  of 
military  discipline  were  very  favorable  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  these  traits,  so  much  so  that  in  the  matter  of 
etiquette  and  polite  manners  one  felt  that  he  was  in  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  of  a  thousand  men,  —  each  man  a 
possible  Lord  Chesterfield. 

Fort  Wagner. 

Fort  Wagner  was  situated  on  the  north  end  of  Morris 
Island,  Charleston  Harbor.  It  was  an  enclosed  work 
constructed  of  huge  timbers  and  rafters,  covered  over  with 
earth  and  sand,  some  twenty  feet  thick.  In  its  bomb- 
proof shelter  a  garrison  varying  from  750  to  1400  effective 
men  withstood  with  trifling  loss  the  bombardment  which 
lasted  almost  uninterruptedly  night  and  day  for  fifty  days. 
The  terrible  fire  of  the  Federal  land  batteries  and  the 
"  Ironsides,"  eight  monitors  and  five  gunboats,  seemed  sure 
to  tear  out  the  very  insides  of  the  fort,  but,  in  fact,  simply 
excited  a  lively  commotion  in  the  sand.  It  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  ditch  and  provided  with  a  sluice-gate  for  re- 
taining the  high  tides.  It  extended  from  high-water  mark 
on  the  east,  six  hundred  and  thirty  feet,  to  Vincent's  Creek 
and  the  impassable  marshes  on  the  west.  It  was  armed 
with  eighteen  guns  of  various  calibre,  of  which  number,  fif- 
teen covered  the  only  approach  by  land,  which  was  along 
the  beach  and  was  the  width  of  scarcely  half  a  company 


12  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

front  in  one  place.  This  approach  was  swept  not  only  by 
the  guns  of  Wagner,  but  also  by  those  of  Battery  Gregg  on 
Cumming's  Point,  the  very  northern  extremity  of  the  island, 
and  by  those  of  Sumter,  and  it  was  enfiladed  by  several 
heavily-armed  batteries  on  James  and  Sullivan  Islands. 

The  first  assault,  in  which  the  colored  troops  took  no 
part,  was  made  on  the  morning  of  July  11th,  1863. 
General  Gillmore  officially  reported :  "  The  parapet  was 
gained,  but  the  support  recoiled  under  the  fire  to  which 
they  were  exposed,  and  would  not  be  gotten  up."  The 
second  and  more  famous  assault  was  made  at  twilight  on 
the  evening  of  July  18th,  by  two  brigades/  the  one  under 
command  of  Brigadier-General  Strong,  the  other  under 
Colonel  Putnam,  and  the  whole  under  Brigadier-General 
Seymour.  The  First  Brigade  was  designated  to  storm  the 
fort,  the  Second  to  support  the  First.  Our  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  led  the  column.  In  quick  time  that  de- 
voted column  went  on  to  its  destiny,  heedless  of  the  gaps 
made  in  its  ranks  by  the  relentless  fire  of  the  guns  of 
Wagner,  of  Gregg,  of  Sumter,  of  James  and  Sullivan 
Islands.  When  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  fort, 
the  fire  from  the  Federal  batteries  ceased,  so  that  our  men 
might  not  be  destroyed  by  it.  In  an  instant  the  rebel 
garrison  swarmed  from  the  bomb-proof  to  the  parapet,  and 
to  its  artillery  was  added  the  compact  and  destructive  fire 
of  fourteen  hundred  rifles  at  two  hundred  yards'  range,  a 
storm  of  solid  shot,  shells,  grape,  canister  and  bullets  that 
annihilated  the  head  of  the  column  and  staggered  for  the 
moment  the  regiments  that  followed.  Something  must  be 
done,  and  that  quickly,  or  everything  would  go  down 
under  that  appalling  fire.  Not  with  the  intoxicated  cheer 
of  men  who  rush  on  to  victory,  but  with  the  reckless 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION".  13 

shout  that  men  give  when  they  lead  a  forlorn  hope,  the 
two  hundred  yards  were  passed,  the  ditch  was  crossed,  the 
parapet  was  gained,  and  the  State  and  National  colors 
planted  thereon. 

A  characteristic  of  veteran  troops  is  that  they  cannot 
always  be  made  to  attempt  the  seemingly  impossible. 
Over  and  over  again  we  read  of  soldiers  tried  in  many  a 
campaign,  who,  though  hearing  orders,  heed  them  not,  but 
stand  appalled  and  benumbed.  A  characteristic  of  the 
white  veterans  who  were  engaged  in  the  two  assaults  on 
Wagner  was  that  they  "  could  not  be  got  up,"  that  is  to 
say  in  sufficient  numbers  to  push  the  advantage  gained  to 
complete  success.  On  the  second  assault  fragments  of 
regiments  survived  the  narrow  passage  on  the  beach  and 
put  in  an  appearance  within  the  fort.  Other  fragments, 
unable  to  scale  the  parapet,  found  shelter  by  lying  down 
on  the  slope  of  the  fort.  Colonel  John  L.  Chatfield  with 
his  Sixth  Connecticut  and  fragments  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  and  other  regiments  occupied  the  south- 
east bastion.  The  Thirty -first  North  Carolina  Regiment 
(Confederate),  which  was  to  have  defended  that  bastion 
or  salient,  demoralized  by  a  new  and  strange  experience, 
failed  to  respond,  and  remained  in  the  bomb-proof.  For 
one  hour  the  captured  bastion  was  held  against  the  inces- 
sant attacks  of  the  enemy,  who  now  added  pikes  and 
hand  grenades  to  their  weapons  of  defence  and  assault. 
It  was  a  valiant  garrison,  hard  pressed,  and  was  driven, 
for  a  moment,  from  one  side  of  the  work  to  seek  shelter 
among  the  traverses ;  but  when  reinforced  from'  Sumter, 
at  the  critical  moment,  it  triumphed. 

Colonel  Shaw  fell  dead  upon  the  parapet.  Captains 
Russell  and  Simpkins  and  other  brave  men  fell  while 


14  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

keeping  the  embrasures  free  from  the  enemy's  gunners  and 
sweeping  the  crest  of  the  parapet  with  their  fire.1  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Edward  N".  Hallowell  reached  the  parapet. 
Desperately  wounded,  he  rolled  into  the  ditch,  was  again 
hit,  and  with  great  difficulty  managed  to  crawl  to  our 
lines.  An  unknown  number  of  enlisted  men  were  killed 
within  the  fort.  Forty  enlisted  men,  including  twenty 
wounded,  were  captured  within  the  fort.  The  State  flag, 
tied,  unfortunately,  to  the  staff  with  ribbons,  was  lost. 
The  staff  itself  was  brought  off.  The  national  colors 
planted  upon  the  parapet  were  upheld  and  eventually 
borne  off  by  Sergeant  William  H.  Carney,  a  heroic  man 
whose  wounds  in  both  legs,  in  the  breast  and  the  right 
arm,  attest  his  devotion  to  his  trust.  The  regiment  went 
into  action  with  twenty-two  officers  and  six  hundred  and 
fifty  enlisted  men.  Fourteen  officers  were  killed  or 
wounded.  Two  hundred  and  fifty-five  enlisted  men  were 
killed  or  wounded.  Prisoners,  not  wounded,  twenty.  Total 
casualties,  officers  and  men,  two  hundred  and  sixty-nine, 
or  forty  per  cent.  The  character  of  the  wounds  attest  the 
nature  of  the  contest.  There  were  wounds  from  bayonet 
thrusts,  sword  cuts,  pike  thrusts  and  hand  grenades ;  and 
there  were  heads  and  arms  broken  and  smashed  by  the 
butt-ends  of  muskets. 

As  bearing  upon  the  disposition  of  Colonel  Shaw's  body 
we  have  the  letter  of  Assistant-Surgeon  John  T.  Luck, 
U.S.A.,  dated  at  New  York,  October  21,  1865  :  — 

TO   THE   EDITOK  OF  THE   AEMY  AND  NAVY  JOTTENAL  :  — 

Sir,  —  I  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  rebels  the  morning 
after  the  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  South  Carolina,  July  19th, 
1863.  While  being  conducted  into  the  fort  I  saw  Colonel 
Shaw,  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  (colored)  Kegi- 

1  Emilio's  Fort  Wagner,  12. 


IN  THE  WAE  OF  THE  REBELLION.  15 

ment,  lying  dead  upon  the  ground  just  outside  the  parapet. 
A  stalwart  negro  had  fallen  near  him.  The  rebels  said  the 
negro  was  a  color-sergeant.  The  colonel  had  been  killed 
by  a  rifle-shot  through  the  chest,  though  he  had  received 
other  wounds.  Brigadier-General  Hagood,  commanding  the 
rebel  forces,  said  to  me  :  "I  knew  Colonel  Shaw  before  the 
war,  and  then  esteemed  him.  Had  he  been  in  command  of 
white  troops  I  should  have  given  him  an  honorable  burial. 
As  it  is,  I  shall  bury  him  in  the  common  trench,  with  the 
negroes  that  fell  with  him."  1 

General  Hagood  affirms  that  he  has  no  recollection  of 
the  conversation  as  given  by  Surgeon  Luck,  and  attempts 
to  show  that  Colonel  Shaw's  burial  in  the  trench  with  his 
negroes  was  without  significance.  There  appears,  how- 
ever, to  be  no  good  reason  for  changing  the  record.  The 
manner  of  Colonel  Shaw's  burial  has  been  circumstantially 
related  by  two  Confederate  officers,  —  Major  McDonald, 
Fifty-first  North  Carolina,  and  Captain  H.  W.  Hendricks,  — 
both  of  whom  were  present  at  the  time.  Colonel  Shaw's 
body  was  stripped  of  all  his  clothing  save  undershirt  and 
drawers.  This  desecration  of  the  dead  was  done  by  one 
Charles  Blake  and  others.  The  body  was  carried  within 
the  fort  and  there  exposed  for  a  time.  It  was  then  carried 
without  the  fort  and  buried  in  a  trench  with  the  negroes. 
Colonel  Shaw  was  the  only  officer  buried  with  the  colored 
troops.2 

"  I  know  not,"  said  Governor  Andrew  as  he  handed  the 
colors  to  the  Fifty-fourth,  "  when,  in  all  human  history,  to 
any  given  thousand  men  in  arms  there  has  been  given  a 
work  so  proud,  so  precious,  so  full  of  hope  and  glory,  as 
the  work  committed  to  you." 

i  Harvard  Memorial  Biographies,  211. 

2  Emilio's  History  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Eegiment,  98  et  sea.,  and  226. 


16  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Colonel  Shaw  was  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age, — 
how  young  it  seems  now  !  —  and  had  seen  two  years  of 
hard  service  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  His  clean-cut 
face,  quick,  decided  step,  and  singular  charm  of  manner, 
full  of  grace  and  virtue,  bespoke  the  hero.  The  immortal 
charge  of  his  black  regiment  reads  like  a  page  of  the  Iliad 
or  a  story  from  Plutarch.  I  have  always  thought  that  in 
the  great  war  with  the  slave  power  the  figure  that  stands 
out  in  boldest  relief  is  that  of  Colonel  Shaw.  There  were 
many  others  as  brave  and  devoted  as  he,  —  the  humblest 
private  who  sleeps  in  yonder  cemetery  or  fills  an  unknown 
grave  in  the  South  is  as  much  entitled  to  our  gratitude,  — 
but  to  no  others  was  given  an  equal  opportunity.  By  the 
earnestness  of  his  convictions,  the  unselfishness  of  his  char- 
acter, his  championship  of  an  enslaved  race,  and  the  manner 
of  his  death,  all  the  conditions  are  given  to  make  Shaw 
the  best  historical  exponent  of  the  underlying  cause,  the 
real  meaning  of  the  war.  He  was  the  fair  type  of  all  that 
was  brave,  generous,  beautiful,  and  of  all  that  was  best 
worth  fighting  for  in  the  war  of  the  slaveholders'  Rebellion. 

Yes,  the  colored  troops  fought  well.  That  is  not  the 
most  that  may  be  said  for  men.  The  courage  that  is 
necessary  to  face  death  in  battle  is  not  of  the  highest 
order.  The  lower  the  scale  of  civilization  the  higher  the 
degree  of  that  kind  of  courage.  It  is  all  very  well  of  course 
to  praise  the  bravery  of  these  men  as  soldiers,  but  with  what 
words  may  we  express  our  admiration  of  the  dignity,  self- 
respect,  self-control,  they  showed  in  their  conduct  as  men 
as  well  as  soldiers  in  the  matter  of  pay  ?  They  were 
promised  the  same  pay,  and,  in  general,  the  same  treat- 
ment, as  white  soldiers.  No  one  expected  the  same  treat- 
ment in  the  sense  of  courtesy,  but  every  one  believed  a 


Col.  Robert  G.  Shaw. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  17 

great  nation  would  keep  faith  with  its  soldiers  in  the  beg- 
garly matter  of  pay.  They  were  promised  thirteen  dollars 
per  month.  They  were  insulted  with  an  offer  of  seven 
dollars.  Massachusetts  resented  the  insult,  and  attempted 
to  remedy  the  wrong  by  offering  to  make  good  the  differ- 
ence between  the  thirteen  dollars  promised  and  the  seven 
dollars  offered.  The  State  agents,  with  money  in  hand, 
visited  the  camps  on  Folly  and  Morris  islands,  and 
pleaded  with  the  men  by  every  argument,  by  every  persua- 
sion they  could  command.  In  vain ;  they  were  the 
soldiers  of  the  Union,  not  of  a  State.  They  would  receive 
their  pay  in  full  from  the  United  States,  or  they  would  not 
receive  it  at  all.  The  Nation  might  break  its  faith,  but 
they  would  keep  theirs.  Every  mail  brought  letters  from 
wives  and  children  asking  for  money.  In  some  instances 
their  homes  were  broken  up  and  the  almshouse  received 
their  families.  At  times  the  regiments  were  driven  to  the 
verge  of  mutiny.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Fifty-fifth  did  one 
morning  stack  arms,  not  in  an  angry,  tumultuous  way,  but 
in  a  sullen,  desperate  mood  that  expressed  a  wish  to  be 
marched  out  to  be  shot  down  rather  than  longer  hear  the 
cries  from  home  and  longer  endure  the  galling  sense  of 
humiliation  and  wrong.  But  better  counsels  prevailed, 
and  a  grand  catastrophe  was  averted  by  the  patriotism  and 
innate  good  sense  of  the  men,  added  to  the  infinite  patience, 
tact,  and  firmness  of  the  officers.  One  poor  fellow,  a  ser- 
geant in  the  Third  South  Carolina,  induced  his  company 
to  stack  arms  on  the  ground  that  he  was  "  released  from 
duty  by  the  refusal  of  the  Government  to  fulfil  its  share  of 
the  contract."  He  was  logical,  but  it  was  in  time  of  war, 
and  the  only  thing  to  be  done,  was  done.  He  was  court- 
martialled  and  shot.     In  the  scathing  words  of  Governor 

2 


18  THE  NEGRO   AS  A  SOLDIER 

Andrew :  "  The  Government  which  found  no  law  to  pay 
him  except  as  a  nondescript  and  a  contraband,  neverthe- 
less found  law  enough  to  shoot  him  as  a  soldier."  Seven 
times  were  our  regiments  mustered  for  pay.  Seven  times 
they  refused,  and  pointed  to  their  honorable  scars  to  plead 
their  manhood  and  their  rights.  The  men  of  the  Fifty- 
fifth  for  sixteen,  of  the  Fifty-fourth  for  eighteen,  months 
toiled  on  and  fought  on  without  one  cent  of  pay,  and  at 
last  they  won,  —  won  through  long  suffering  and  patient 
endurance ;  won  through  a  higher  and  rarer  courage  than 
the  courage  of  battle, — a  victory  that  is  not  inscribed  on 
their  flags  by  the  side  of  Wagner,  of  James  Island,  of 
Olustee,  and  of  Honey  Hill,  but  which  none  the  less  fills 
one  of  the  noblest  and  brightest  pages  in  the  history  of 
their  race,  as  it  does  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  in  the 
record  of  our  war. 

In  January  of  the  year  1781,  under  conditions  far  less 
exasperating,  the  American  army  quartered  at  Morristown 
mutinied  for  lack  of  pay,  declared  their  intention  of  de- 
parting to  their  homes,  and  were  only  restrained  from 
carrying  their  threat  into  execution  by  the  personal  influ- 
ence and  solicitation  of  the  Commander-in  Chief.1 

The  tender  of  full  payment  from  date  of  enlistment, 
when  finally  made  by  the  United  States,  was  made  to 
those  only  who  would  make  oath  that  they  were  free  on 
or  before  April  21,  1861.  We  must  thoroughly  respect 
the  tender  consciences  of  two  or  three  men  who  could  not 
in  strict  conformity  with  the  truth  and  who  did  not  make 
this  oath,  and  who  therefore  never  received  their  pay,  but 
we  have  no  harsh  words  for  the  many  who  were  equal  to 
the  occasion  by  swearing  to  their  freedom  on  April  21st, 

1  History  of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  24. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  19 

or  any  other  day.  Those  who  were  fugitive  slaves,  and 
hence  in  a  legal  sense  not  free  at  the  time  specified,  had 
overcome  too  many  difficulties  in  their  escape  from  the 
South,  and  in  their  efforts  to  avoid  the  slave-hounds  in  the 
North,  to  be  seriously  annoyed  by  this  grotesque  proposition 
to  swear  away  their  back  pay  by  denying  their  freedom. 

Fort  Wagner  was  finally  reduced  by  regular  siege  opera- 
tions extending  from  July  18th  to  September  7th,  1863. 
Five  approaches  or  parallels  were  run  across  the  island 
from  the  right  to  the  marshes  on  the  left ;  the  fifth  and 
last  parallel  was  within  two  hundred  and  forty  yards  of 
the  fort.  In  its  construction  the  remains  of  Federal  sol- 
diers who  had  been  buried  by  the  rebels  after  the  assaults 
were  excavated.  The  ground  was  thick  with  torpedoes, 
which  were  removed,  not  without  some  distressing  casual- 
ties. Their  presence  explained  the  inactivity  of  the  garri- 
son, which  hitherto  had  been  a  mystery.  This  reliance  upon 
torpedoes  instead  of  upon  constant  sorties  to  harass  the 
fatigue  parties  and  to  delay  or  destroy  their  works  is  noted 
by  Gillmore  and  others  as  the  capital  defect  in  the  defence 
of  Wagner.  A  further  trench,  which  may  be  called  a 
branch  of  the  fifth  parallel,  permitted  an  approach  within 
one  hundred  yards.  Indeed,  on  the  night  preceding  the 
evacuation,  the  sappers  pushed  on  by  the  south  face,  leav- 
ing it  at  their  left,  and  removing  a  sort  of  palisade  made 
up  of  projecting  pikes  and  sharp-pointed  stakes  "  firmly 
planted  in  the  counterscarp  of  the  ditch."  By  means  of 
calcium  lights  the  fort  was  kept  well  illuminated,  and  our 
own  men  all  the  more  enshrouded  in  darkness.  The  work 
was  done  under  constant  fire  and  almost  altogether  at 
night.  Finally,  on  the  morning  of  September  7th,  when 
General   Gillmore   was  again  prepared   to   assault,   both 


20  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

Wagner  and  Gregg  were  evacuated  with  the  trifling  loss  to 
the  rebels  of  two  boats  containing  nineteen  sailors  and 
twenty-seven  soldiers  of  the  rear  guard.  In  the  somewhat 
contemptuous  language  of  the  Confederate  Major  Robert 
C.  Gilchrist,  "  Seven  hundred  and  forty  men  were  driven 
out  of  a  sandhill  by  eleven  thousand  five  hundred." 

The  following  official  inquiries  were  made  of  the  en- 
gineers who  directed  the  operations  of  working  parties  of 
both  white  and  black  troops  during  the  siege  of  Wagner : 

1.  Courage,  as  indicated  by  their  behavior  under  fire. 

2.  Skill  and  appreciation  of  their  duties,  referring  to 
the  quality  of  the  work  performed. 

3.  Industry  and  perseverance  with  reference  to  the 
quantity  of  the  work  performed. 

4.  If  a  certain  work  were  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
least  possible  time,  i.  e.,  when  enthusiasm  and  direct  per- 
sonal interest  are  necessary  to  attain  the  end,  would  whites 
or  blacks  answer  best  ? 

5.  What  is  the  difference,  considering  the  above  points, 
between  colored  troops  recruited  from  the  free  States,  and 
those  from  the  slave  States  ? 

Six  replies  to  these  inquiries  were  received  from  engineer 
officers  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  siege ;  the  substance 
of  them  is  embraced  in  the  following  summary  :  — 

1.  To  the  first  question,  all  answer  that  the  black  is 
more  timorous  than  the  white,  but  is  in  a  corresponding 
degree  more  docile  and  obedient,  —  hence  more  completely 
under  the  control  of  his  commander,  and  much  more 
influenced  by  his  example. 

2.  All  agree  that  the  black  is  less  skilful  than  the 
white  soldier,  but  still  enough  so  for  most  kinds  of  siege 
work. 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  21 

3.  The  statements  unanimously  agree  that  the  black 
will  do  a  greater  amount  of  work  than  the  white  soldier, 
because  he  labors  more  constantly. 

4.  The  whites  are  decidedly  superior  in  enthusiasm. 
The  blacks  cannot  be  easily  hurried  in  their  work,  no 
matter  what  the  emergency. 

5.  All  agree  that  the  colored  troops  recruited  from  the 
free  States  are  superior  to  those  recruited  from  slave  States. 

The  average  percentage  of  sick  among  the  negro  troops 
during  the  siege  was  13.9,  while  that  of  the  white  in- 
fantry was  20.1  per  cent. 

The  foregoing  summary  is  taken  from  the  appendix  to 
Gillmore's  Report,  where  also  two  of  the  replies  are  given 
in  full,  and  are  supposed  to  be  a  fair  sample  of  the  others. 
One  of  the  engineers  says :  "  I  will  say,  in  my  opinion 
their  courage  is  rather  of  the  passive  than  the  active  kind. 
They  will  stay,  endure,  resist  and  follow ;  but  they  have 
not  the  restless,  aggressive  spirit.  I  do  not  believe  they 
will  desert  their  officers  in  trying  moments  in  so  great 
numbers  as  the  whites ;  they  have  not  the  will,  audacity 
or  fertility  of  excuse  of  the  straggling  white,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  have  not  the  heroic  nervous  energy  or 
vivid  perception  of  the  white,  who  stands  firm  or  presses 
forward.  I  do  not  remember  a  single  instance,  in  my 
labors  in  the  trenches,  where  the  black  man  has  skulked 
away  from  his  duty,  and  I  know  that  instances  of  that 
kind  have  occurred  among  the  whites ;  still,  I  think  that 
the  superior  energy  and  intelligence  of  those  remaining, 
considering  that  the  whites  were  the  lesser  number  by  the 
greater  desertion,  would  more  than  compensate."  The 
other  reply  reads,  in  answer  to  the  first  inquiry  :  "  I  have 
found  that  black  troops  manifest   more  timidity  under 


22  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

fire  than  white  troops ;  but  they  are,  at  the  same  time, 
more  obedient  to  orders  and  more  under  the  control 
of  their  officers,  in  dangerous  situations,  than  white 
soldiers." 

The  evidence  of  the  engineers  was  more  favorable  than 
was  expected  by  those  who  knew  them.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  what  they  style  "superior  intelligence"  and  "en- 
thusiasm," their  replies  quite  make  up  the  beau  ideal  of  a 
soldier.  To  stay,  to  endure,  to  resist,  to  follow,  to  work 
patiently,  doggedly,  to  obey  orders,  never  to  skulk,  or  to 
desert  their  officers  in  trying  moments,  —  what  more  do 
you  expect,  what  more  do  you  find  in  the  mass  of  men 
who  go  to  make  up  an  army  ?  "  Superior  intelligence " 
they  had  not,  —  that  is  an  essential  for  an  officer ;  average 
intelligence  may  be,  "  superior  intelligence  "  is  not,  needed 
in  the  soldier.  The  engineers  themselves  did  not  want  it ; 
they  did  not  even  want  "  nervous  energy  "  and  "  enthusi- 
asm "  in  the  trenches.  The  simple  fact  is,  the  engineers 
clamored  for  details  of  black  troops,  and  were  always  dis- 
appointed and  provoked  when  they  could  not  get  them. 
The  engineers  were  good  fellows,  most  of  them.  They 
were  competent  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  working  par- 
ties in  the  trenches,  but  they  did  not  know  how  to  write  it 
out.  In  their  willingness  to  try  to  say  the  fair  and  the 
correct  word,  they  admit  more  in  their  comparisons  with 
the  whites  than  I  should  care  to  claim.  Their  conclusion 
seems  to  be  a  jumble  ;  namely,  that  although  the  blacks 
did  the  greater  part  of  the  work,  did  it  more  faithfully 
than  the  whites,  stuck  to  their  officers  in  trying  emer- 
gencies more  devotedly  than  did  the  whites ;  that  although 
they  preferred  the  blacks  in  the  trenches;  yet,  after  all, 
some   how  or  other,  they  don't   exactly  know  why,  yet 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  23 

they  do  prefer  whites !  In  the  matter  of  "  enthusiasm  " 
the  engineers  are  altogether  at  fault.  In  five  minutes 
you  can  excite  a  regiment  of  blacks  into  a  pitch  of  en- 
thusiasm that  will  carry  everything  before  it,  provided 
you  yourself  are  sincere ;  provided  you  respect  and  trust 
them  and  they  respect  and  trust  you ;  provided  always 
you  know  how  to  spell  and  to  pronounce  the  word 
"  negro,"  —  that  sure  test  and  gauge  of  refinement  in 
an  American. 

The  alleged  timidity,  want  of  enthusiasm,  heroic  nervous 
energy,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  is  not,  for  the  engineers, 
very  happily  illustrated  by  the  next  action  in  which  the 
Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  took  part.  In  an  effort  to  sur- 
prise Battery  Lamar  on  James  Island,  the  Federal  column 
was  itself  surprised  by  a  section  of  artillery  posted  in  an 
old  field-work,  and  supported,  though  not  heavily,  by  both 
cavalry  and  infantry.  One  white  regiment,  a  good  one 
too,  that  has  the  names  of  twenty  battles  inscribed  upon 
its  flags,  was  driven  in  the  utmost  confusion  to  the  rear. 
One  colored  regiment,  armed  with  nearly  worthless  old 
Austrian  rifles,  soon  after  condemned,  did  but  little  better. 
The  Fifty-fifth  went  right  on  in  perfect  order,  charged  the 
battery,  captured  two  twelve-pounder  Napoleon  guns, 
turned  the  guns  upon  the  flying  enemy,  and  brought  them 
off  in  triumph  with  a  loss  of  two  officers  wounded  and 
twenty-six  enlisted  men  killed  or  wounded.  It  may  be 
well  at  this  point  to  pay  brief  attention  to  the  oft-repeated 
question,  "Did  the  colored  fight  as  well  as  the  white 
troops  ? "  by  calling  the  attention  of  the  inquirer  to  the 
obvious  fact  that  these  captured  guns  were  defended, 
under  favorable  conditions,  by  white  troops. 


24  THE  NEGRO  AS   A  SOLDIER 

Olustee. 
In  the  disastrous  affair  of  Olustee,  Florida,  February 
20th,  1864,  the  redeeming  feature  appears  to  have  been 
the  conspicuous  gallantry  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts. 
That  regiment  was  hurried  into  action  at  the  very  crisis  of 
affairs.  It  checked  the  onward  sweep  of  a  victorious 
enemy,  and  covered  the  retreat  towards  Jacksonville  in  a 
thoroughly  creditable  manner,  as  I  am  told,  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  Colonel  Edward  N.  Hallowell.  In 
this  battle  the  Eighth  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry  lost  three 
hundred  and  ten  dead,  wounded  and  missing,  —  the  miss- 
ing mostly  dead  or  wounded  left  on  the  field,  —  one  of  the 
severest  regimental  losses  during  the  war. 

Honey  Hill,  S.  <C,  November  30th,  1864. 

This  assault,  in  its  main  features,  was  a  repetition  of 
Wagner.  The  only  approach  attempted  to  the  rebel  bat- 
teries and  intrenchments  was  the  narrow  cutting  through 
which  the  road  crossed  the  swamp.  Through  this  defile 
five  companies  of  the  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  were  or- 
dered to  storm  the  enemy's  works.  The  order  is  not  free 
from  the  charge  of  down-right  recklessness.  Against  the 
concentrated  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry  at  one  hundred 
yards'  range  the  five  companies  charged  in  vain,  were  ral- 
lied twice  and  then  withdrawn  with  a  loss  of  twenty-nine 
killed  and  one  hundred  and  fifteen  wounded,  or  one  half 
the  officers  and  one  third  of  the  enlisted  men  engaged.  A 
useless  slaughter,  not  compensated  for  by  some  brilliant 
fighting  both  before  and  after  the  charge. 

In  passing,  I  desire  in  affectionate  remembrance  to 
simply  give  the  names  of  Captain  William  Dwight  Crane 


Col.  Edward  N.  Hallowell. 

BREVET    BRIG.  GEN.   17.   S.  V. 


IN  THE  WAR  OP  THE  REBELLION.  25 

and  Lieutenant  Winthrop  Perkins  Boynton,  who  were 
chums  in  Harvard  College,  officers  in  the  same  company, 
devoted  friends,  who  seemed  always  to  move,  to  think  and 
to  act  in  beautiful  accord,  and  who  here  fell  together  in  a 
common  death. 

Besides  these,  the  more  important  actions,  there  were 
many  minor  affairs,  not  large  enough  to  be  dignified  by  the 
name  of  battles,  but  entirely  sufficient  to  test  the  mettle  of 
the  men  as  soldiers.  In  these,  our  Massachusetts  regiments 
appear  to  have  been  uniformly  successful.  There  were 
reconnoissances  and  raids,  rifle  pits  were  charged  and  cap- 
tured, prisoners  were  taken,  and  the  resources  of  the  enemy 
removed  or  destroyed.  There  is  not  time,  nor  is  it  neces- 
sary, to  more  than  mention  the  conspicuous  service  rendered 
by  the  colored  troops  in  the  other  military  departments. 

Port  Hudson. 

At  Port  Hudson  and  at  Milliken's  Bend,  Louisiana,  the 
official  reports  commend  the  colored  troops  for  steadiness 
in  maintaining  positions  and  for  heroism  in  charging  the 
batteries  of  the  enemy. 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Military  Historical  Society  of 
Massachusetts,  by  General  John  C.  Palfrey,  the  conduct 
of  the  black  regiments  at  Port  Hudson,  June  27,  1863,  is 
recorded  in  these  forceful  words  :  "  Between  the  attacks  of 
Weitzel  and  Augur  an  assault  was  ordered  from  our  extreme 
right  by  the  black  regiments  as  a  diversion.  Their  ground 
was  very  difficult  and  disadvantageous,  and  the  garrison  re- 
ceived them  with  special  temper  and  exasperation.  But 
they  fought  without  panic,  and  suffered  severely  before  fall- 
ing back  in  good  order.  Their  conduct  and  its  indication 
of  character  and  manliness  made  a  profound  impression 


26  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  SOLDIER 

on  the  army,  and  later  through  the  country.  The  day 
should  be  one  of  the  famous  dates  in  the  progress  of 
their  race." 

?  Petersburg. 

At  the  first  attempt  on  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  June, 
1864,  Hinks'  Division  of  the  18th  Corps,  under  fire  for  the 
first  time,  carried  the  line  of  works  in  its  front,  and  cap- 
tured in  succession  seven  pieces  of  artillery  with  great 
spirit  and  dash.  This  decided  success  of  the  colored  troops 
gave  to  General  Smith  an  opportunity  to  seize  Petersburg, 
advantage  of  which,  however,  was  not  taken,  whether 
through  a  misinterpretation  of  General  Grant's  orders,  or 
because  the  city  was  believed  to  be  untenable,  is  a  matter 
of  considerable  debate. 

Chaffin's  Farm  and  Fort  Gilmer. 

Paine's  Division  of  the  18th  Corps  and  Birney's  Colored 
Division  of  the  10th  Corps  were  conspicuously  engaged  at 
Chaffin's  Farm,  in  the  assault  on  Fort  Gilmer  and  the 
intrenchments  at  New  Market  Heights.  At  Fort  Gilmer 
they  scaled  the  parapet  by  climbing  upon  each  other's 
backs.  A  distinguished  rebel  general  wrote  at  the  time  : 
"Fort  Gilmer  proved  the  other  day  that  they  would 
fight." 

The  Crater. 

At  the  battle  of  the  Crater,  at  Petersburg,  July  30th, 
1864,  the  colored  troops  were  ordered  in  after  the  assault 
was  a  bloody  failure.  They  failed  to  retrieve  the  disaster, 
but  were  in  no  way  responsible  for  it.  Their  casualties 
in  Ferrero's   Division  were   1327  killed,   wounded  and 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  27 

missing.  The  white  soldiers  in  the  Crater  were  per- 
mitted to  surrender  j  many  of  the  blacks  were  given  no 
quarter. 

Nashville. 

In  the  victory  at  Nashville,  December  16th,  1864,  the 
heaviest  loss  in  any  regiment  occurred  in  the  13th  U.  S. 
Colored  Infantry,—  55  killed  and  106  wounded  :  total  221. 
General  George  H.  Thomas,  the  hero  of  that  battle,  a 
Virginian  and  at  one  time  a  slaveholder,  when  riding 
over  the  field,  saw  the  dead  colored  troops  commingled 
with  the  bodies  of  the  white  soldiers,  and  said,  "  This 
proves  the  manhood  of  the  negro."  *■ 

Fox  enumerates  52  battles  and  actions  in  which  colored 
troops  were  prominently  engaged,  and  from  the  same 
authority  it  appears  that  before  the  war  closed  there  were 
145  regiments  of  infantry,  7  of  cavalry,  12  of  heavy  artil- 
lery, 1  of  light  artillery,  and  1  of  engineers :  total  166.  Of 
these,  about  60  were  brought  into  action  on  the  battle- 
field, the  others  having  been  assigned  to  post  or  garrison 
duty.  Fox  makes  the  following  judicial  remark :  "  Of 
the  regiments  brought  into  action,  only  a  few  were  engaged 
in  more  than  one  battle ;  the  war  was  half  over,  and  so 
the  total  of  killed  does  not  appear  as  great  as  it  otherwise 
would  have  done.  The  total  number  killed  or  mortally 
wounded  was  143  officers  and  2751  men."  2  The  actual 
fighting  done  by  the  colored  troops  was  not,  under  the 
conditions  stated,  inconsiderable.  The  indirect  benefit  to 
our  armies  was  incalculable.  When  General  Grant  gath- 
ered together  his  forces  to  make  the  supreme  effort  that 

i  Van  Horn's  Life  of  Thomas,  347. 
2  Fox's  Regimental  Losses,  56. 


28  THE  NEGRO  AS  A   SOLDIER 

culminated  in  the  capitulation  of  General  Lee,  he  added 
to  his  Array  of  the  Potomac  the  white  veterans  that  held 
the  forts,  the  cities  and  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic  Coast, 
as  well  as  some  of  the  more  interior  parts  of  the  mainland. 
The  vacated  points  must  be  held  against  the  enemy  by 
some  one.  They  were  so  held  by  the  colored  troops.  I 
am  not  able  to  state  accurately  the  number  of  reinforce- 
ments thus  contributed  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Certainly  the  entire  10th  Army  Corps  was  relieved  and 
sent  to  Virginia.  It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  40,000 
men  is  not  an  over-estimate.  When  we  remember  that 
General  Grant  lost  60,000  men  in  60  days,  a  number  equal 
to  General  Lee's  effective  army  at  that  time,  it  well  be- 
comes a  question  worthy  the  serious  attention  of  the 
historian  what  might  have  been  the  fate  of  Grant's  Army 
in  the  Wilderness  had  there  been  40,000  fewer  veterans 
than  there  were. 

It  remains  to  be  recited  that  in  the  last  desperate  days 
of  the  expiring  Rebellion  the  Confederate  Congress  passed 
a  bill  which  provided  that  not  more  than  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  male  slaves  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and 
forty-five  should  be  called  out.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
General  Lee  gave  his  unqualified  advocacy  of  the  proposed 
measure.  Unfortunately  the  passage  of  the  act  had  been 
so  long  delayed  that  the  Confederacy  collapsed  before 
results  were  obtained.  I  wish  it  had  been  otherwise.  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  slave  regiments 
would  have  deserted  en  masse  to  the  Yankees,  and  that 
the  supposition  that  they  would  have  fought  for  the  Con- 
federacy is  hugely  and  grotesquely  preposterous. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  never  forget  the  debt  we  owe  to 
the  colored  soldiers.     Let  us  always  be  willing  to  give 


IN  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION.  29 

them  whatever  credit  is  their  due.  We  called  upon  them 
in  the  day  of  our  trial,  when  volunteering  had  ceased, 
when  the  draft  was  a  partial  failure  and  the  bounty  system 
a  senseless  extravagance.  They  were  ineligible  for  pro- 
motion, they  were  not  to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Nothing  was  definite  except  that  they  could  be  shot  and 
hanged  as  soldiers.  Fortunate  indeed  is  it  for  us,  as  well 
as  for  them,  that  they  were  equal  to  the  crisis ;  that  the 
grand  historic  moment  which  comes  to  a  race  only  once  in 
many  centuries  came  to  them,  and  that  they  recognized  it. 
They  saw  that  the  day  of  their  redemption  had  arrived. 
They  escaped  through  the  rebel  lines  of  the  South ;  they 
came  from  all  over  the  North ;  and,  when  the  war  closed, 
the  names  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  men  of 
African  descent  were  on  the  rolls. 


AN  ADDRESS 


BY 


N.  P.  HALLOWELL,  '61. 

DELIVERED    ON    MEMORIAL    DAY, 

May  30,  1896, 

at  a  meeting  called  by  the  graduating 
class  of  harvard  university. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,   BROWN,   AND   COMPANY. 

1896. 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  N.  P.  Hallowell. 


©nitarsttg  Press: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


THE 

MEANING  OF  MEMOEIAL  DAY. 

DELIVERED  ON  MEMORIAL  DAY,   MAY  30,  1896,  AT  A  MEETING 

CALLED  BY  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS  OF 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY. 


As  we  stand  before  the  tablets  in  yonder  hall  and  read 
the  familiar  names  of  our  old  classmates  and  comrades  in 
arms,  there  is  somewhat  of  satisfaction  in  the  thought  that 
there  never  was  an  internecine  struggle  in  which  principle 
played  so  great,  passion  so  small  a  part  as  in  the  war  of 
1861-65.  In  making  this  broad  and  general  remark  it  is 
not  necessary  to  forget  the  crimes  committed  in  Kansas 
and  in  Missouri  by  the  guerilla  chief  Quantrell,  the  massa- 
cre of  unarmed  recruits  at  Fort  Pillow  by  General  Forrest, 
the  intended  indignity  put  upon  the  body  of  Colonel  Shaw 
at  Fort  Wagner,  and  the  pitiless  cruelty  of  the  Anderson- 
ville  pen ;  but,  in  spite  of  these  somewhat  serious  excep- 
tions, it  remains  true  that  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
war  was  the  absence  of  personal  antagonism.  Every  vet- 
eran within  sound  of  my  voice  will  readily  recall  familiar 
examples  coming  within  his  observation  and  experience 
illustrative  of  my  meaning,  —  how  the  opposing  pickets 
would  begin  by  chaffing  each  other,  and  would  end  by  a 
pleasant  interchange  of  courtesies :  the  rebel  would  crave 
a  little  quinine  or  other  medical  store  of  which  he  was 


4  THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY. 

always  in  sore  need;  the  Yankee  would  accept  a  bit  of 
tobacco,  of  which  the  supply  at  times  was  scant. 

Those  whose  good  fortune  it  was  to  be  in  Sedgwick's 
division  on  the  day  of  Fair  Oaks  will  remember  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Chickahominy  on  Sumner's  floating  bridge, — 
a  structure  held  in  position  against  the  rising  torrent  only 
by  the  weight  of  the  marching  column ;  and  they  will 
remember,  when  the  further  side  was  reached,  how  the 
victorious  rebel  battalions,  on  the  point  of  sweeping 
Casey's  division  into  the  river,  butted  against  this  un- 
known and  unexpected  reinforcement,  and  met  with  a 
bloody  repulse.  When  darkness  closed  upon  the  field  of 
battle,  the  ground  was  thickly  strewn  with  rebel  dead  and 
rebel  wounded  in  every  stage  of  suffering.  To  add  to  the 
discomforts  of  the  situation,  a  drizzling  rain  set  in.  As 
the  men  of  Sedgwick's  division  were  about  to  dispose  of 
themselves  for  the  night,  and  to  get  what  protection  from 
the  elements  they  could  with  the  rubber  blankets  they 
had  slung  round  their  shoulders  that  morning  when  they 
broke  camp,  a  colonel  of  a  certain  Massachusetts  regiment 
walked  down  the  ranks,  and  made  a  call  for  rubber 
blankets  with  which  the  rebel  wounded  might  be  covered. 
Not  a  rubber  was  held  back ;  so  far  as  one  could  tell, 
every  blanket  was  handed  in,  and  the  exhausted  men  of 
that  regiment,  who  had  marched  and  fought  from  midday 
until  sundown,  stood  up  in  the  rain  through  that  dreary 
night  without  a  murmur. 

When  General  Grant,  at  Appomattox,  with  a  nicety  of 
feeling  and  simplicity  of  statement  which  were  the  certain 
marks  of  that  great  captain,  said  to  the  surrendered  foe, 
"  Retain  your  side-arms  ;  keep  your  horses,  —  they  will  be 
needed  for  the  spring  ploughing,"  he  not  only  stamped  his 


THE  MEANING  OF  MEMOEIAL  DAY.  5 

own  character  with  the  noble  attribute  of  magnanimity, 
but  at  the  same  time  gave  fitting  expression  to  that  spirit 
of  humanity  which  always  pervaded  the  old  Army  of  the 
Potomac. 

Generals  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  Sheridan,  too,  never 
failed  to  draw  a  sharp  line  of  distinction  between  a  traitor 
and  a  fighting  rebel.  The  one  is  a  thing  greatly  to  be 
despised;  the  other,  a  person  much  to  be  respected. 
Jefferson  Davis,  Howell  Cobb,  Floyd  of  Virginia,  and 
Thompson,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  —  one  a  United 
States  senator,  three  members  of  President  Buchanan's 
cabinet,  —  while  still  under  oath  of  office,  conspired  to 
overthrow  the  government  they  had  sworn  to  maintain. 
They  scattered  our  navy  over  remote  waters  of  the  globe  ; 
they  stationed  our  little  army  in  the  far  distant  posts  of 
Texas ;  they  crammed  our  munitions  of  war  into  the  ar- 
senals of  the  South ;  —  Secretary  Floyd  even  put  the  hand 
of  a  thief  upon  the  trust,  funds  of  the  United  States. 
Robert  E.  Lee,  Stonewall  Jackson,  James  Longstreet,  and 
other  men  of  their  kind,  handed  back  their  commissions 
to  the  government  first,  and  cast  their  lots  with  their 
respective  States  second.  Whatever  was  good  in  the  lives 
of  such  men  is  the  common  inheritance  of  their  children 
and  of  ours. 

With  some  little  pride,  which  I  know  you  will  excuse, 
I  shall  read  a  letter  written  by  the  schoolmaster  of  Robert 
E.  Lee,  my  kinsman,  Benjamin  Hallowell,  a  venerable 
Quaker,  late  of  Alexandria,  Va.  Mr.  Hallowell  writes: 
"  Robert  E.  Lee  entered  my  school  in  Alexandria,  Va.,  in 
the  winter  of  1825-26,  to  study  mathematics  preparatory 
to  his  going  to  West  Point.  He  was  a  most  exemplary 
student  in  every  respect.     He  was  never  behind-times  at 


6  THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY. 

his  studies :  never  failed  in  a  single  recitation ;  was  per- 
fectly observant  of  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  institu- 
tion ;  was  gentlemanly,  unobtrusive,  and  respectful  in  all 
his  deportment  to  teachers  and  his  fellow-students.  His 
specialty  was  finishing  up.  He  imparted  a  finish  and  a 
neatness,  as  he  proceeded,  to  everything  he  undertook. 
One  of  the  branches  of  mathematics  he  studied  with  me 
was  conic  sections,  in  which  some  of  the  diagrams  were 
very  complicated.  He  drew  the  diagrams  on  a  slate ;  and 
although  he  well  knew  the  one  he  was  drawing  would 
have  to  be  removed  to  make  room  for  another,  he  drew 
each  one  with  as  much  accuracy  and  finish,  lettering  and 
all,  as  if  it  were  to  be  engraved  and  printed. 

"  The  same  traits  he  exhibited  at  my  school  he  carried 
with  him  to  West  Point,  where,  I  have  been  told,  he 
never  received  a  mark  of  demerit,  and  graduated  at  the 
head  of  his  class." 

Lee's  record  as  a  soldier  is  almost  as  perfect  as  his 
record  as  a  schoolboy.  In  the  long  list  of  battles  which 
he  planned  and  fought  there  is  only  one  not  worthy  of  his 
genius.  "  When  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had  forced  its 
way  through  siege  and  battle  to  within  sight  of  the  spires 
of  Richmond,  it  was  rolled  back  upon  the  James  in  a 
seven-days'  conflict."  Hard  pressed,  our  divisions  gathered 
themselves  together  upon  the  plateau  of  Malvern  Hill,  and, 
encircling  their  lines  with  artillery,  stood  at  bay.  Lee 
came  on,  flushed  with  success,  hot  with  pursuit,  and  hurled 
his  brigades,  first,  one  upon  our  lines  there,  then  another 
here,  all  without  concert  of  action.  Five  thousand  rebel 
dead  and  wounded  were  the  penalty  of  his  rashness.  It 
was  McClellan's  best,  Lee's  worst,  fought  battle  of  the  war. 
Lee  never  repeated  his  mistake ;  nor  did  McClellan. 


THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL   DAY.  7 

There  are  few  pages  in  history  more  pathetic  than  the 
beginning  and  the  ending  of  Robert  Lee  as  a  rebel.  He 
was  the  favorite  of  General  Scott.  At  the  instance  of 
President  Lincoln,  the  command  of  the  armies  of  the 
North  was  offered  to  him.  But  neither  the  confidence  of 
Lincoln,  nor  the  affection  of  Scott,  nor  the  instincts  of  his 
better  nature  could  prevail.  Out  of  an  agony  of  conflict 
with  himself  he  came  to  the  fatal  conclusion  to  draw  his 
sword  against  his  country.  When  defeated  and  crushed, 
he  rode  from  Appomattox  to  his  home;  and  from  his 
home  he  was  soon  borne  to  his  grave.  There  was  no 
great  bodily  ailment.  The  man  had  simply  died  of  a 
broken  heart. 

You  may  think  that  I  have  lapsed  into  an  eulogy  of 
rebels.  And  indeed  it  is  pleasant  to  dwell  upon  the 
virtues  of  our  old  friends,  the  enemy.  And  yet  there 
should  be  neither  mental  nor  moral  confusion  as  to  the 
real  meaning  of  this  Memorial  Day  and  this  Memorial 
Hall.  I  unite  with  the  late  William  J.  Potter,  of  the 
Class  of  1854,  who  warns  us  not  to  be  caught  by  the  senti- 
mental sophistry  that  since  there  were  heroism  and  fidelity 
to  conviction  on  both  sides,  we  may  commemorate  those 
virtues  of  both  armies  as  American,  and  thereby  try  to  for- 
get there  were  ever  two  armies  or  two  causes.  Fidelity 
to  conviction  is  praiseworthy ;  but  the  conviction  is  some- 
times very  far  from  praiseworthy.  Slavery  and  polygamy 
were  convictions.  Such  monuments  as  Memorial  Hall 
commemorate  the  valor  and  heroism  that  maintained  cer- 
tain principles,  —  justice,  order,  and  liberty.  To  ignore 
the  irreconcilable  distinction  between  the  cause  of  the 
North  and  that  of  the  South  is  to  degrade  the  war  to  the 


8  THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY. 

level  of  a  mere  fratricidal  strife  for  the  display  of  military 
prowess  and  strength.  War,  horrid  war,  waged  for  its 
own  sake  is  ignoble,  brutal ;  but  when  waged  in  defence 
of  convictions  which  deserve  to  prevail,  then  indeed  may 
war  be  glorified  and  sanctified  by  the  sufferings  and  lives 
of  its  victims.  So  long,  then,  as  there  is  a  distinction 
between  the  principles  of  liberty  and  those  of  slavery,  may 
monuments  to  Confederate  dead  be  erected  on  Southern, 
not  on  Northern  soil,  and  may  this  Memorial  Hall  stand 
for  those  Harvard  men  who  fought  for  liberty,  and  not  for 
those  who  fought  for  slavery. 

The  courage  necessary  to  face  death  in  battle  is  not  of 
the  highest  order ;  that  of  the  non-resistant  is  of  a  better 
kind.  Some  forty  Friends,  called  Quakers,  of  North  Caro- 
lina, were  forced  into  the  rebel  service.  Their  religious 
convictions  would  not  let  them  fight.  They  refused  to 
drill  or  carry  a  musket.  They  were  prodded  with  bayo- 
nets, strung  up  by  the  thumbs,  knocked  down  with  the 
butt-ends  of  muskets,  lashed  on  the  bare  back,  starved  in 
jails  until,  in  some  instances,  death  ended  their  sufferings. 
You  and  I,  my  veteran  friends,  were  courageous,  I  dare 
say ;  but  to  sustain  us  we  had  the  vicissitudes  of  camp 
life,  of  the  march,  and  of  battle.  The  women  who  stayed 
at  home  to  work,  to  endure,  and  to  suffer  in  silence, — 
they,  too,  were  courageous. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  courage,  combined  with 
dignity,  self-respect,  and  self-control,  was  the  conduct  of 
our  colored  troops  in  the  matter  of  pay.  They  were  prom- 
ised the  same  pay  and  in  general  the  same  treatment  as 
white  soldiers.  No  one  expected  the  same  treatment  in 
the  sense  of  courtesy,  but  every  one  believed  a  great  nation 
would  keep  faith  with  its  soldiers  in  the  beggarly  matter 


THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY.  9 

of  pay.  They  were  promised  $13  per  month.  They  were 
v  ~7~  insulted  by  an  offer  of  $H>:  Massachusetts  resented  the 
insult,  and  endeavored  to  remedy  the  wrong  by  offering  to 
make  good  the  difference  between  the  $13  promised  and 
&  7 .  the  $10-  offered.  The  State  agents  with  money  in  hand 
visited  the  camps  on  Folly  and  Morris  Islands,  and  pleaded 
with  the  men  by  every  argument,  by  every  persuasion  they 
could  command,  to  accept  State  money.  In  vain.  They 
were  soldiers  of  the  Union,  not  of  a  State.  They  would 
be  paid  by  the  United  States  in  full  or  they  would  not  be 
paid  at  all.  The  nation  might  break  its  faith,  but  they 
would  keep  theirs.  Every  mail  brought  letters  from 
wives  and  children  asking  for  money.  In  some  instances 
homes  were  broken  up  and  the  almshouse  received  their 
families.  At  times  our  regiments  were  driven  to  the  verge 
of  mutiny.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Fifty-fifth  did  stack  arms 
one  morning,  not  in  an  angry,  tumultuous  way,  but  in  a 
sullen,  desperate  mood  that  expressed  a  wish  to  be 
marched  out  to  be  shot  down  rather  than  longer  hear  the 
cries  from  home  and  longer  endure  the  galling  sense  of 
humiliation  and  wrong.  But  better  counsels  prevailed, 
and  a  grand  catastrophe  was  averted  by  the  patriotism  and 
innate  good  sense  of  the  men,  added  to  the  sympathy  and 
firmness  of  the  officers.  One  poor  fellow,  a  sergeant  in 
the  Third  South  Carolina,  induced  his  company  to  stack 
arms  on  the  ground  that  he  was  "  released  from  duty  by 
the  refusal  of  the  Government  to  fulfil  its  share  of  the 
contract."  He  was  logical,  but  it  was  in  time  of  war. 
The  only  thing  to  be  done,  was  done.  He  was  court-mar- 
tialled  and  shot.  In  the  scathing  words  of  Governor 
Andrew,  "The  Government  which  found  no  law  to  pay 
him  except  as  a  nondescript  and  a  contraband,  neverthe- 


10  THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY. 

less  found  law  enough  to  shoot  him  as  a  soldier."  Seven 
times  were  our  regiments  mustered  for  pay.  Seven  times 
they  refused  and  pointed  to  their  honorable  scars  to  plead 
their  manhood  and  their  rights.  The  men  of  the  Fifty- 
fifth  for  sixteen,  of  the  Fifty-Fourth  for  eighteen  months, 
toiled  on  and  fought  on  without  one  cent  of  pay.  At  last 
they  won  —  won  through  long  suffering  and  patient  endur- 
ance, won  through  a  higher  and  rarer  courage  than  the 
courage  of  battle  —  a  victory  that  is  not  inscribed  on  their 
flags  by  the  side  of  Wagner,  James  Island,  Olustee,  and 
Honey  Hill,  but  which,  none  the  less,  fills  one  of  the  best 
and  brightest  pages  in  the  history  of  their  race. 

Among  the  names  inscribed  upon  the  shaft  on  Soldiers' 
Field  is  that  of  Robert  Gould  Shaw.  How  he  and  Russell 
and  Simpkins  and  other  brave  men  went  down  in  death  on 
the  bloody  slopes  of  Wagner,  is  known  to  all.  Colonel 
Shaw  was  then  twenty-five  years  of  age.  How  young  it 
seems  now !  His  clean-cut  face,  quick,  decided  step,  and 
singular  charm  of  manner,  full  of  grace  and  virtue,  bespoke 
the  hero.  The  immortal  charge  of  his  black  regiment  reads 
like  a  page  of  the  Iliad  or  a  story  from  Plutarch.  I  have 
always  thought  that  in  the  great  war  with  the  slave  power, 
the  figure  that  stands  out  in  boldest  relief  is  that  of 
Colonel  Shaw.  There  were  many  others  as  brave  and 
devoted  as  he, — the  humblest  private  who  sleeps  in  yon- 
der cemetery,  or  fills  an  unknown  grave  in  the  South,  is  as 
much  entitled  to  our  gratitude,  —  but  to  no  others  was 
given  an  equal  opportunity.  By  the  earnestness  of  his 
convictions,  the  unselfishness  of  his  character,  his  cham- 
pionship of  an  enslaved  race,  and  the  manner  of  his  death, 
all  the  conditions  are  given  to  make  Shaw  the  best  histor- 
ical exponent  of  the  underlying  cause,  the  real  meaning  of 


THE  MEANING  OF  MEMORIAL  DAY.  11 

the  war.  He  was  the  fair  type  of  all  that  was  brave, 
generous,  beautiful,  and  of  all  that  was  best  worth  fighting 
for  in  the  war  of  the  slaveholders'  rebellion. 

It  is  an  awe-inspiring  sight,  —  the  charge  of  men  upon  a 
fort  to  be  stormed  or  a  battery  to  be  taken.  The  popular 
conception  of  a  charge  is  a  rush.  There  is  indeed  a  final 
rush,  should  there  be  any  survivors  to  make  it.  But  to 
my  mind  the  grandeur  of  a  charge  is  in  the  quiet  advance 
which  precedes  the  final  struggle.  One  does  not  run 
through  life ;  no  more  did  Pickett  double  quick  his  mile  or 
more  over  the  open  fields  of  Gettysburg.  His  lines  came 
on  slowly,  majestically.  They  were  ploughed  with  solid 
shot ;  blown  into  shreds  by  bursting  shells ;  decimated 
by  canister  in  front,  by  musketry  on  flank.  At  every  step 
those  torn  ranks  would  shrivel  and  shrink.  The  survivors 
closed  in  on  their  colors  and  calmly  walked  to  their  fate. 
For  one  brief  moment  they  struck  the  Union  centre,  and 
then  —  they  were  no  more. 

Comrades,  who  are  the  remnant  of  a  once  mighty  host, 
we  must  thus  march  shoulder  to  shoulder.  There  is  work 
ahead  for  each  one  of  us!  Our  ranks  are  thinning.  A 
comrade  drops  out  to-day,  another  to-morrow.  Peace  to 
them !  But,  steady,  men !  Close  in  on  the  colors !  With 
old-time  courage  oppose  a  bold  front  to  the  foe,  until  the 
last  survivor  shall  hand  over  the  standard  to  these  younger 
men,  and  rejoin  his  comrades  in  that  land  where  there  are 
"  neither  wars  nor  rumors  of  wars." 


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